[CAUT] deferred maintenance, was: large and rapid....

[Jeff Tanner]

On Nov 28, 2006, at 2:31 PM, rwest1 at unl.edu wrote:

> There is a lot of deferred maintenance on campus.  Nebraska voters  
> want taxes cut, and spending reduced.  As long as that mood exists,  
> they'll have foggy rooms, and pay more in the long run for what  
> should be routine maintenance.  At least that's my take on the real  
> cause of the problem.

That sounds like South Carolina as well.  I agree with your take.   
There was a $900+ million surplus in the SC budget this year, but  
they would rather give it back to tax payers than apply it to the  
departments that had been barely operating during the last several  
years because of the deep cuts that created the surplus when the  
economy rebounded, or to the departments that have long standing  
unmet needs.  When some spending was increased to some of the  
departments that had barely survived the recession, politicians eager  
to unseat incumbents called it "spending run amuck".  Other  
incumbents claimed to have "eliminated wasteful spending", when the  
truth was that essential services departments were grossly  
underfunded.  They won their elections this month.

> Having said all that, I hope you all don't get the impression that  
> the University of NE is falling apart.  There are a lot of good  
> things happening there.  With all the recent budget cutting around  
> the nation, I think NE fared better than some universities.  New  
> buildings go up.  Renovations of old buildings get done.  It's just  
> hard to know when the music school renovations will move to the top  
> of the priority list.

And here too.  Unfortunately, the K-12 schools don't seem to fare as  
well.  In two new schools in one of the wealthiest school districts  
in South Carolina, I recently tuned 4 brand new Chinese made Story &  
Clark studio pianos that were basically ordered through mail order  
(some company that provides a one stop shop for school furnishings  
and supplies), that had been placed by a dealer somewhere many states  
away.  They were basically delivered in the crate.  I have no idea  
how they were uncrated.  They'd been used in music classes for 7  
weeks before the dealer made contact with someone to go tune them,  
and I was told they'd been sitting there since July before that.  In  
most, I found the bass to be around pitch but the pitch at C52 was  
about 50 cents low and on some was as low as 100 cents further into  
the treble.  The tone of these beasts was awful.  The poor teachers  
had been trying to teach on these.  Factory "finished" action  
regulation left a LOT to be desired, even though the dealer claimed  
they were supposed to have been "gone through" at the warehouse in  
California before they were shipped to SC (the dealer never took  
possession of them).  These cheap PSOs won't last anytime in a  
school.  But the district purchasing agent bypassed the local dealers  
and found a deal on pianos with a name she'd heard of and believed to  
represent good quality.  No thought was given to warranty service  
issues or anything like that.  Taxpayers will be paying to replace  
them sooner than we should, and they aren't going to be in tune when  
it comes time for my children to take music classes in those rooms.

I also recently read an invitation to bid on piano "tuning" for  
another local school district.  No mention of how many tunings per  
year to expect, what time of year to plan to perform them, or how  
many pianos in the district.  Nor was there any guarantee of a  
minimum number of "tunings", and no opportunity to inspect the  
current condition of the instruments being covered by the bid.  But  
they wanted you to include all "preventive maintenance" (including  
all "adjustments, repairs, etc." - how open ended is that?) with the  
tuning price at no extra cost.  The technician was to provide all  
parts and accessories (which would include items like Dampp-Chaser  
systems) "at cost with no built in profit", and be able to provide  
service response within 24 hours of a call, between the hours of 9 am  
and 3 pm.  The bidder is required to carry all sorts of liability  
insurances and vehicle insurance coverage limits per their  
requirements, and be able to provide proof if asked.

The technician was to bid a "per tuning" cost.

Rather than submit a bid, I sent them a long letter.


Jeff Tanner, RPT
University of South Carolina



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