The white Dodge Ram that for years has sat alone in a North Campus parking lot has become something of a landmark along a shortcut connecting the Ellicott and Denton communities. But Facilities Management officials say in the next year, the concrete will vanish from beneath it when the entire area is converted into open green space.
The twenty-year-old truck, believed to be the oldest in the university fleet, has spent its life with the entomology department, where professor John Hellman uses it occasionally to supervise the university apiary, or bee house.
Hellman said he last used it “a couple of months ago” and with similar scarcity before then. It has sat parked with a casual disregard for the painted boundaries of its parking space since.
“It’s always here” was a common refrain among students walking past. Some ignore it, some look in as they walk past, and some are frightened by it. Everyone notices it.
The truck’s condition matches its surroundings with rusted paint, a broken grille and a dented roof. Six of the seven decrepit Depression-era cottages nearby were demolished in the past year and a half, leaving only the one that serves as the apiary amidst an empty field.
Although its doors have been unlocked, the truck appears almost undisturbed by students except for cups occasionally left on its rear bumper. The November 2006 issue of the American Bee Journal is stuck to its vinyl bench seat, sitting next to some used napkins and a half-empty bottle of water. On the passenger’s side floor sits some more trash, a piece of wood, the truck’s detached rearview mirror, loose paper, a hammer and a roll of paper towels.
Though the truck fails to park within the lines and lacks a parking permit, it has not been ticketed. Department of Transportation Services Director David Allen said state vehicles are only ticketed for violations such as blocking a fire lane or a handicapped spot.
“There’s no question that we hold state vehicles to a different standard,” he said, and added that particular parking lot is not regularly enforced because the truck is typically the only vehicle there.
In a brief telephone interview, Hellman declined to discuss the contents of the truck, how he parked it or the cost of having it constantly available rather than sharing one of the entomology department’s other vehicles, saying, “That’s my business” and hanging up.
It costs $300 per year in insurance, plus gas and maintenance, to keep the truck for occasional use, said the entomology department’s Finance Director Bill Katsereles.
But the truck’s days may be numbered.
Jack Baker, Facilities Management’s director of operations and maintenance, said the apiary building will follow the other cottages in demolition in the next year to make way for an expanded green space. The parking lot, which is used only for the apiary, would also be removed, and with it, the truck.
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