It was 4 p.m., and Brandon Kadner was just getting off work when he witnessed a car crash into a curb.

Two men proceeded to run out of the car and hide in a shed just as the police pulled up with their lights on.

This experience is just one of the many odd things Kadner has seen during his time of being an equipment operator for facilities planning and management.

“Every day is different, never know for sure what you’re going to do until you come in,” Kadner said.

Facilities planning and management does everything from custodial work for the university to trimming the lawn on Central Campus and providing heat, air conditioning and electricity to the university.

Equipment operators at the university run garbage trucks and control the flow of student traffic.

Another aspect facilities planning and management provides is custodial services for the university.

The custodial shift runs from 4 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and includes cleaning bathrooms and classrooms once a day.

With the increased student population on campus, bathrooms and large lecture halls become dirtier as the day goes on.

To help with the flow of students, small adjustments have been made such as adding more paper towel dispensers to restrooms.

“Every year, they have more students, and we don’t get much staff added to our crew to help us,” said Jeff Hudlund, custodian with facilities planning and management for 31 years.

Another aspect to custodial services is within the Department of Residence.

Shifts start at 7 a.m. with picking up trash outside. Around 7:30, custodians start cleaning between elevators until they can start cleaning in bathrooms at 8:20.

Custodian Shelley Anderson said her favorite time of the year is Halloween.

“They had trash bags taped to the water pipes, so you had to walk through this slashed trash bag to get down the hallway,” Anderson said.

Seven custodians work at Wallace-Wilson towers, and each one is in charge of three floors.

Another custodian at the towers, Dave Nicolas, said his favorite part of the job is the student interaction. He has had many rewarding experiences on the job.

One experience was when a past resident visited their old room and left a note on the door for Nicolas.

“Dave, we hope Werkman is good to you, but it won’t be as good as last year! Keep being awesome, like always,” the note said. 

The power plant at Iowa State is another component of facilities planning and management. It uses steam to provide heat, air conditioning and electricity to each building on campus and operates 24/7.

Employees also deal with crises on campus, including people stuck in elevators, power outages and locked buildings. 

“That’s part of our job. If we see something not quite right, we correct it before we have an outage,” said Rick Pervier, shift supervisor at the power plant.

One mishap happened during the flood in 2010 when water flooded the basement of the power plant. Pervier had to take a turbine down and buy power from the city of Ames all within 30 minutes. The water level got so high it would have tipped the turbine.

“We want to keep the costs down for every student coming to the university,” Pervier said.

The power plant operates Iowa State’s main campus as well as the veterinary medicine complex and applied sciences north of campus.

Power outages are another mishap that the power plant is chiefly in charge of.

The worst power outage Pervier experienced happened at 2 p.m. across campus, and the power didn’t start working again until 6 a.m. the next day.

Facilities planning and management is also in charge of campus grounds keeping.

Grounds employees manage the summer mowing crew in the summer, which consist of four students.

Each member on grounds is assigned a route for mowing, trimming and pruning.

This same system applies during the winter for snow removal where grounds employees take care of sidewalks, streets entryways and steps.

“In the winter time when it snows, we’re pretty much snow patrol,” Kadner said. “When it’s snowing we’re here 12, 14 hours a day.”

With the continuous foot traffic on campus, students pack snow as they walk, which can’t be picked up with the brushes on their machines. These machines are used because they are faster than using a blade, but snow isn’t truly removed until employees come through a second time with salt.

Kadner said snow days can get even longer when events take place at Hilton Coliseum or Lied Recreation Athletic Center.

But Kadner truly doesn’t know what to expect when he comes in for work.

Kadner has seen it all, from a car wreck to helping the Secret Service set up for a political candidate. He has even seen a dog on a motorcycle.

“On Saturday, I saw a couple guys on a motorcycle, the passenger had on a schnauzer costume and was like, 7 [feet] tall,” Kadner said.