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Wednesday, Sept. 04, 2002 - 7:02 p.m. Today was a perfect example of how the government can do wonders with the tax dollars it collects. It was also a day that presented me with perfect example of how it�s thrown away. First, the good news: Our storage finally received its new crew cab pick-up truck. We have been limping along with only two pick-ups ever since the old #2 died in my arms (or while I was driving it, anyway) last spring. The two have over 290,000 combined on them. And they are both assigned to lead workers, so they aren�t available for running errands in and such. The new truck is a heavy-duty Chevrolet. It has a huge engine (6.6 liter v-8 diesel), plenty of towing capacity, room for 6 (no �sleeps six� jokes, please). It even has air conditioning! Welcome to the 1950�s, State highway department! Now, you being a taxpayer (most of you, anyway), you are probably thinking �How much did this truck dent the state treasurer�s bank account?�, right? Well, here�s the good news: If you could look at the window sticker, you would see that the base price for this type of truck is over $27,000. Add the diesel engine and heavy towing package and the final sticker price was $35,429! But of course, the government doesn�t pay sticker price, does it? We place a open bid for a truck , with certain feature that must be included, and then receive any legitimate bid sent our way. When the bidding period is over, the state takes the lowest bid. In this case, the low bid came from a Chevy dealer located 180 miles north of Mohall. Hey, they have to deliver it, so no big deal. Anyway��.the low bid came in at $26,564! A full $8865 dollars less than the sticker price. I don�t know about you, but I would like to be able to walk into a dealer and get that kid of discount. And it came with AIR CONDITIONING! Here is the bad side of government spending: The State has decided to change how they inspect our trucks for the winter season. This year, we will be judged on a 2 page, 80+ point system. In the past, we had about 30 things that were looked at, and it took about 15 minutes per truck to accomplish this job. Now? Looks like an hour or so per truck. Will our fleet be any better prepared for snow removal? I doubt it. Shit breaks. Especially shit that is, on the average, 8 years old. But the more thorough inspection isn�t the reason why I put this under wasted money. The new inspection rules REQUIRE that all trucks have 4� wide yellow high-reflection tape on the sides and headache board of every truck. Up until 1996, all of the trucks came from the factory with three round plastic reflectors on both sides of the bed. This was to provide extra visibility to cross-traffic. It seemed to do the job, because I can�t recall any of our trucks hit in the side because they could be seen. Whenever we have had a bed repainted (since 1999, all complete truck painting is done by body shops, not our employees), we have put new reflectors back on the bed. We even did this on a few trucks made since 1996, because the old reflective tape was removed in sandblasting the old paint off of the bed. So, to sum this long, rambling story up: we now have 15 (out of 23) beds without the �highly-reflective� tape on the sides. Because of the new rules, these trucks MUST have new tape applied to the beds BEFORE the inspection, or the truck will FAIL THE INSPECTION! It will only take a few minutes per truck to mount the tape. That�s not the problem. The problem is cost. At an average of 40 foot of tape per bed x 15 beds x $2.75 per foot for the tape = $1650.00 for our storage alone! x all of the old trucks in the state = $a ton of money thrown away. One more thing: law does not require the tape. You have to have this stuff on a school bus, and red/white tape is required on all trailers here in North Dakota. But there is no real reason to slap the stuff all over our trucks. You wait- by the end of winter, we will be told to stop spending money because we are broke again�� Someone came up our driveway last night, walked all the way to our garage, and ripped Codeman�s license plate off the front of his car. Took the factory-installed mounting bracket, too. About 10 days ago, they bent the crap out of his back plate, leaving it on the car because they couldn�t break it free from the four bolts holding it onto the car. It was shaped like the letter �C� when Codeman discovered it. Why did someone do this to him? It could be someone wanted the plate for their den. More than likely, it�s the mentally unstable boy he has had trouble with at school in the past. I thought he had moved on, but this is so much like what he did before, he might be back at it again. Anyway you look at it, I think we have a pretty good idea who the shithead is that did both acts of vandalism, but without proof we can�t make them pay for it. Codeman went to the Secretary of State�s office today, and paid the $6 fee to get a new plate. The bracket will probably cost us much more than that, but we haven�t hit the junkyards yet. What can we do to stop this from happening again? I need to replace the motion detection light on the garage. I think it has shot craps, only coming on now if you are directly below it. I have been entertaining the thought of sharpening the edges of his new plates, too. That way, if they decide to grab hold and twist again, they might have to shed a little blood to complete the process. Hey! I said I was ENTERTAINING the thought! I am open to suggestions , if you have a better idea����.. Postscript: I almost forgot to mention that the talented Lorster picked up the Diarist Award for �Best Rant� for the recent quarter. Stop by and see why she won��.
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