Ever wonder why the USPS keeps losing money?

And keeps raising the price of stamps?

                                   

There are probably a lot of reasons, frankly, among which are horrible management, union domination, and a changing technology and delivery business landscape.  Along with a belief that they are ‘too big and too important to fail.’  Not to mention ‘we are the government.’

But we think another reason is on display here in our little town, the richest in America.  Photos seem appropriate to make our point.

If you head into down town at all, you know this rather sizable looking project has been going on for months.  We didn’t make a point of recording the start date, but if we had to guess, it’s been going on since October, or at the latest, November.  You can correct us if you have hard data on when it actually began.

                  

The early signs of preparation had us thinking the foundation was being rebuilt, or some other serious construction/reconstruction project was getting under way.  A very large area in front of the building was fenced off, and as you can see, most of the front windows were protected with plywood sheathing.  All of which gave the impression that major work was to be undertaken.

Several weeks ago, on a day we didn’t have a camera handy, we peaked through the fence to see what was going on.  As best we can describe it, the front steps, which had been deteriorating and crumbling for some years, were being rebuilt.  In addition, a concrete ramp, complete with heating to melt any snow or ice accumulation, was being added.  Lots and lots of steel rebar, forms, and hot water plumbing were in evidence.

We told ourselves that if that was all that’s involved, it should be completed pretty soon, as in January, maybe?

Not gonna happen.  Tomorrow is the first day of March, and here are pictures taken today, the last day of February.

                                    

                                

                    

It seems obvious that the project, whatever it’s scope, was planned to take place during the most expensive construction season of the year.  Calling for ‘ground heaters’ and all sorts of special accommodations for cold weather.

Not to mention that a rather grandiose temporary ramp was built, along with an associated new entrance into the post office lobby.  You have to see it in person to get a sense of just how grand it is.  Our guess is that it exceeds whatever you’ve seen elsewhere for a permanent ramp.

                               

But this is government, and we have to make appropriate allowances.  They can’t be expected to think critically about an efficient and economical plan for the repairs, or even to use prudence in establishing the scope of the work.

                                   

It’s anybody’s guess how much this is all costing, though it doesn’t matter, because ‘the feds are paying for it.’  Just like Medicaid expansion.  The money doesn’t come from you and I; it comes from la-la land.

In spite of all the rationalizing, we can’t help but take a wild guess about the total cost of this project.  Pick a number, and then double it, because this is a government funded project.

Our first shot at it is $100 thousand. 

                                          

Your job is to figure out how many stamps need to be sold at two cents more than last year to cover this cost, keeping in mind that such critical improvements are taking place all around our country.  Or looked at from a different angle, how much the Federal subsidy to the USPS has to increase to cover this type of expense a thousand times over.

Or more.

Technorati Tags: Post Office

An ‘aspirational goal’ for Bowdoin College?

“I am Polar Bear, hear me roar…..Boola, Boola” and all that other fun stuff associated with the lazy, hazy, boozy-woozy days of college. When students do their best to remind the town that they’re nothing without the gown.

In these precious few formative years they focus on having a good time, knowing full well that they’ve got their whole lives ahead of them to ‘change the world’ and ‘make it a better place.’ 

Well, maybe not, exactly.  Side’s daughter, ever vigilant for cultural breakthroughs, sent us this link:  Dartmouth students set the bar even higher.  Here are the opening paragraphs of the ‘essay’ at that link:

According to that source link, a bunch of students who refer to themselves as "Concerned Asian, Black, Latin@, Native, Undocumented, Queer, and Differently-Abled students" wrote a letter to administrators at Dartmouth to threaten "physical action" if the administrators do not respond to their list of demands.

What do these weirdos want?  I'll tell you.  They want to "eradicate systems of oppression as they affect marginalized communities on the campus."  The systems include "racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, and ableism" and they are "forms of institutional violence."

And when do they want it?  NOW.

And how do they want it?  Oh, that's where it gets really good.  For starters, they want to see a "redistributing" of power and resources in a way that is "radically equitable."

Not just equitable, mind you, but RADICALLY equitable. They're mad, you see, because they think "Dartmouth epitomizes power being isolated to rich, white males" so they are demanding that Dartmouth create "its own Freedom Budget to transform itself into a safe, inclusive, and supportive environment for us all."

Freedom Budget?  What's that, you might ask?  Well, here's a little taste.  And for the full text of the letter, be sure to click on the source link provided in the opening sentence of this post.

We hope you’ll read the whole piece to get a feel for what having a good time at college means these days.  Whether you are a ‘rich white male’ or otherwise.  And we fully expect that our posting this material should incite a similar uprising at Bowdoin, since we know they follow our blog religiously, in the figurative sense of course. 

We don’t think the student body will take to kindly to being outpaced and outdone by those inferior Ivy Leaguers in Hanover.  Maybe they can even reach out to their fellow elites at Colby and Bates to turn this into a larger movement, to put a fine point on things.

Given our penchant for such subject matter, we may just have to sculpt a statue of a dead horse to erect outside Other Side offices.  Whether you realize it or not, one of the tenets of our media outlet (or ‘tenants’ for some pundits [or ‘pundants’ for some others]) is that ‘there is no such thing as a horse that’s too dead to beat.

                  

We understand it’s pretty easy to do.  You just get a really big block of granite, and chip away all the parts that don’t look like a dead horse.  How hard could that be?

Engineer that we are, we suppose we could fail at the task, and on the outside chance that could happen, we always have the resident artistic talents at Polar Bear College to call upon.

Dead horses, dead branches, what’s the difference when you come right down to it?

Technorati Tags: Bowdoin College,Dartmouth,campus activism

A bit of follow-up on The McLellan heating issue…

                                           

In this recent post, we said the following:

On the discussion about The McLellan, after hearing about the current financials of the ‘project,’ someone in the public, as we recall, brought up a heating system concern.  While we couldn’t quite discern what was going on, Councilor Perreault added to our interest in this issue when he suggested something to the effect that ‘had we known about the problem sooner, we might have done something about it.’  ‘But it’s too late now, so we’ll just have to live with it.’

If we’re citing his remarks in error, he’s free to submit a correction.

We received an input from one of our sources a few months ago referring to some sort of lurking, very expensive situation regarding the building’s central heating plant.  The implication was that the annual heating bills could be in the range of $100,000.  We did a bit of looking into things, including a visit to the building, and could find nothing definite to report to you.  We worried, of course, that Bowdoin’s use of the third floor rent free for ten years does not require them to pay for heating and air conditioning their space.

Concerned that we had missed something, we did a bit more looking into the matter.  The first thing we re-learned was that the relevant building ‘inspection’ was performed in September 2010.  You can read it here, just as we did. 

http://www.scribd.com/doc/206195237/Mechanicalfieldreport-September-2010

To begin with, we apologize for not being expert enough in the relevant technology and terminology to comprehend just what the details of this inspection should have raised in the way of concerns.  And we’re sorry we didn’t do a better job following up on a lead we got from a reader.

                         

More to the point, we call Bravo Sierra to any assertion that ‘had we known about this, we might have done something about it.’  As we see it, an inspection dated more than three years ago provides sufficient lead time to address related issues.   Gary Brown’s dismissal may be an explanation for this shortcoming.  On the other hand, he may be a convenient scapegoat.

It appears now that the annual operating cost differential for The McLellan compared to 28 Federal may be in the range of $100,000.  At least for utilities, of which, if we understand things, Bowdoin will pay no portion for their ten year occupation of the third floor of the building.

Seems fair to us, because without them, Brunswick would be nothing, 

As is Other Side.

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,Bowdoin College,The McLellan

Two more points from last night’s council meeting

We typed our report on the meeting late last night when we got home, so we were remiss in telling you all that might interest you.  In some respects, the meeting looked like this:

                      

So here we are to catch up.

                         

On the discussion about The McLellan, after hearing about the current financials of the ‘project,’ someone in the public, as we recall, brought up a heating system concern.  While we couldn’t quite discern what was going on, Councilor Perreault added to our interest in this issue when he suggested something to the effect that ‘had we known about the problem sooner, we might have done something about it.’  ‘But it’s too late now, so we’ll just have to live with it.’

If we’re citing his remarks in error, he’s free to submit a correction.

We received an input from one of our sources a few months ago referring to some sort of lurking, very expensive situation regarding the building’s central heating plant.  The implication was that the annual heating bills could be in the range of $100,000.  We did a bit of looking into things, including a visit to the building, and could find nothing definite to report to you.  We worried, of course, that Bowdoin’s use of the third floor rent free for ten years does not require them to pay for heating and air conditioning their space.

                                   

The nature and tone of the discussion on the subject last night, limited as it was, makes us concerned that this is not a trivial issue, and may in fact be a substantial and ‘unexpected’ operating cost of our shiny new palace.  One that just won’t go away, and will be cited for years and years as ‘costs beyond our control.’

Gary Brown may be gone, but it could be a very long time before his stamp on things is forgotten.  Fortunately, we could end up with his good friend Don Gerrish helping us find and select his successor.

The other item of note was a comment by Councilor Millett referring to a constituent complaint about the idling of the Amtrak Downeaster train set in the Cedar Street residential neighborhood in town, nearby the Midcoast Hunger Prevention Food Bank.

Millett contacted NNEPRA and spoke to Patricia Quinn, the Executive Director, who told her the decision on where to park the train set was ‘up to the operator.’  In other words, according to Quinn, it’s not her fault or that of NNEPRA.  The same councilor said she had received another complaint on the same subject, and would be contacting NNEPRA and Quinn yet again.

            

If the Councilor believes we got this wrong, she is welcome to come to us with a correction backed up by the recorded version of the meeting. 

Since we know some folks who are very familiar with Amtrak operations here in town, we contacted them about Millett’s report.  Here’s the response we got:

The train parks at Cedar Street because NNEPRA  has located a maintenance box trailer in the State-owned lot that has more parking.  The lot is maintained at least in part by Maine Eastern, is a parking area for vans, and is kept plowed by who?  This lot is closer to Maine Street Station with fewer switches and crossings than at Brunswick West (between Church Road and Stanwood), where both have been problematic and involved operating and maintenance issues as well as railroad company disputes over who should provide these important winter maintenance functions.

Our source on this owns property adjacent to the tracks, and added this:

FYI, train crew workers have been using my driveway to transport crews to work on rail/switch ice problems down across from my office. I haven't yet had a chance to tell them to use their own land. Suspect it isn't plowed as close to problem track area as the end of my driveway.

You can form your own conclusions, but as for us, we think there’s a lot more to this than ‘operator choice.’

In the mean time, we suggest you start watching for stray white elephants around town getting in your way as you navigate our infrastructure.  We’re beginning to think said white elephant might be the perfect mascot for our town.

                                

Think about it: 28 Federal Street; the old TR Building; Jordan Acres School; The McLellan; the schools on Columbia Avenue; the Old High School; and we’re sure, other once prized assets we simply forgot.

Keeping with our theory about always looking on the bright side, we’re thinking we may come up with a plan to start Wicked Poppycock’s Peanut Roasting Fiasco and Taxi Company.  This should allow us to capitalize on the growing demand for high end legumes.

Assuming, that is, that we can get the BDC to give us a fully excusable handout of a half million or so.  And that we can find a ready source for fair-traded, all natural, organic, sustainably cultivated, non-GMO and diverse strains of peanuts.

Technorati Tags: Brunswick,town council,Amtrak,The McLellan,white elephants