<HTML><BODY style="word-wrap: break-word; -khtml-nbsp-mode: space; -khtml-line-break: after-white-space; "><BR><DIV><DIV>On Nov 28, 2006, at 2:31 PM, <A href="mailto:rwest1@unl.edu">rwest1@unl.edu</A> wrote:</DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; "><FONT face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: 12.0px Helvetica">There is a lot of deferred maintenance on campus.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>Nebraska voters want taxes cut, and spending reduced.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>As long as that mood exists, they'll have foggy rooms, and pay more in the long run for what should be routine maintenance.<SPAN class="Apple-converted-space"> </SPAN>At least that's my take on the real cause of the problem.</FONT></DIV> </BLOCKQUOTE></DIV><BR><DIV>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.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BLOCKQUOTE type="cite"><DIV style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; ">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.</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><DIV>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.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>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.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>The technician was to bid a "per tuning" cost.</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><DIV>Rather than submit a bid, I sent them a long letter.</DIV><BR><BR><DIV> <SPAN class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-align: auto; -khtml-text-decorations-in-effect: none; text-indent: 0px; -apple-text-size-adjust: auto; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; "><DIV>Jeff Tanner, RPT</DIV><DIV>University of South Carolina</DIV><DIV><BR class="khtml-block-placeholder"></DIV><BR class="Apple-interchange-newline"></SPAN> </DIV><BR></BODY></HTML>