In the latest from Lorne “Better Government Through Advertising” Calvert, plans are afoot to redecorate 100 railcars. Those fighting rural school closures are sure to be pleased;
Work on the $1 million dollar project will be complete by July 31, 2007. The tender for painting the hopper cars has been awarded to GE Railcar Repair Service Company of Regina and the contract for the decals has been awarded to Arco Graphics Inc. of Saskatoon.
“GE was very pleased to be awarded work under this tender and to perform the work here in Saskatchewan,” Plant Manager for GE Railcar Repair Services Regina Rick Campbell said. “The new design of the hopper cars was a challenging and exciting job and we are proud to be part of the overall revitalization of the SGCC hopper car fleet.”
I guess they live near different tracks than I do.
*
Seems more like “better government through frivilous make work projects for your inlaws after giving their kids unlimited access to paint spary bombs”
So, are GE and ARCO connected in any way, to the people who let out the contracts? Whenever any contract is let out, there is a list of bidders, and the info should be available to the public.
When we used to let Forestry contracts years ago, any bidder could ask for the complete list of competitors, and their bid price, so as to be sure the bid was awarded to the lowest bidder. If it wasn’t, the other bidders were entitled to know why.
Does the government of Saskatchewan have such a policy? Kate, did you bid on these contracts?
Please Lorne, call an election before all the money is gone!
You are lucky Kate that seems to be less than we spent in Manitoba on “Spirited Energy”
Over 2 million hah take that my socialists can waste better than yours!
http://www.dustmybroom.com/?p=3872
Uh, err, don’t tell Lorne that. He might conscript you into painting rail cars.
Something tells me the socialists of Calvert might be averse to giving a great opponent any contracts to commit this artistic porkbarreling…
The contracts will probably go to some useful idiots, I predict.
If the socialists had any scruples, they’d simply paint them a solid color with a simple label such as always has been the case. Why spend more money? If they’re demanding more from Ottawa, then what’re they doing going all nuts with spending more? Why not use the dough to fix the gosh-darned roads/hire more medical specialists, etc? Stupid socialists.
I remember as a kid seeing the boxcars all the time with the big image of wheat on them and getting to wave to the guy in the caboose…
Nevertheless, It’d be cool to see Kate’s art rolling across the prairie… and a few rolling all the way to the East Coast! 🙂
“Who do you think runs elections campaigns”? When no answer was forthcoming the question was asked again. When still no answer came he said “Advertising agencies”. That I believe was Chuck Guite (sp?)
If you want to win elections you need the creative guys who work for the ad agencies on your side. It is how the Liberals maintained power and it is how the Conservatives are going about it. If you control the best talent you have the best chance of winning.
When the talent decided the Liberals were in trouble they stopped supporting them and they were toast.
Is this part of the addition equalization payment budget ForLorne is demanding?
as an aside, that spray bomb painter has a pretty good hand.
Ya, but we can spare $1 million right?
After all, the economy is booming! More jobs than ever! Woo-hoo, Sask is on the rebound.
That’s what the politicians and SIAST graduated marketing “specialists” tell us. If I ever see another one of those junky SaskTel commercials with bad actors I’ll vomit.
But really, the jobs may be up but the population is down. Huh?? Is this thanks to those 1400 wasted government jobs that Calvert and friends created? Is this how they managed to ‘up’ the jobs?
This isn’t the most friendly atmosphere Sask has ever seen and it will get much more unfriendly during the election I’m sure.
Bon soir Calvert and friends!
It sounds like it is about time to start painting and pm’ing the fleet of railcars.
As much as I hope that the dippers lose the next SK election I don’t see anything wrong with what they are doing in getting the graincars painted and doing some maintenance on them.
If they do one fifth a year then the job will be done in five years. If they do nothing then the cars will probably be scrap in ten or fifteen years. Rust never sleeps.
geez, $10k per railcar for a new paint job and a decal? somebody is making out like a bandit here.
So, are GE and ARCO connected in any way, to the people who let out the contracts?
Don’t know anything about GE Railcar, but Arco Graphics is a small sign shop founded and operated in Saskatoon by Gordon Nurmberger in about 1959 as a high-quality screen printing shop. Sold in the early 90’s, as far as I know, Arco is now owned by the McMillan family of Cowen Decals out of Edmonton.
Lest we forget – that exclamation mark cost us $1 million, too.
!
There you go Lorne,
I’ll give you 30 days on that exclamation mark posted above….
“‘The government hopper cars are now 26 years old and a recent mechanical assessment of their condition has concluded that repainting the SGCC hopper cars is needed to ensure that the cars are preserved to the end of their 50 year life span,’ Lautermilch said.
“This is the first time the cars have been repainted since the SGCC hopper car fleet was built in 1981. Work on the $1 million dollar project will be complete by July 31, 2007.”
Planned maintenance is a bad thing, eh?
geez, $10k per railcar for a new paint job and a decal? somebody is making out like a bandit here.
Posted by: lyle bert
Have you taken your car in to get it painted lately? $2000 is not out of line for a half decent job. Now think about how big a grain car is.
“The new design of the hopper cars was a challenging and exciting job.”
Hah?
Which was the hardest past: the decision to
use the Prairie Lily, the graphic design of the exclamation point, or the zippy choice of green?
Hey, is that graffiti covering an NDP logo?
Granted paint can be a preventative maintenance item where the hopper car is a structural member, holding the wheel trucks together.
Wheels, axles, bearings, brakes, air hoses probably more important safety related components at current age than paint.
Eh? The exclamation mark alone cost a million bucks?!
Dang, Kate, if this is true, it smacks of Jean LaFleur making hundreds of thousands for simply handing somebody a check!
Maybe there should be a Gomery Inquiry into PAINTSCAM in Sask… I mean, as a long-ago Sasker, this actually annoys me quite a bit.
WOW, all this money for re-branding and promoting Saskatchewan. Even tourism Regina wants in on the act for more money to promote folks to come here (see http://www.iheartregina.com) Why bother to actually change or improve the province when you can simply market your way out of problems? Sheesh!
Hey, a good deal… the cars are so old and rusty that the paint is the only thing holding the contents inside.
AAaahhhh……….FRESH CANVAS!!
Iberia – the point is somewhat well taken, in that a grain car is large, and would require sandblasting. No question, a lot of work involved.
But on the other hand, a grain car does not require the high quality finish of a car. Nowhere close. This is industrial painting – not automotive finish work. You cannot extrapolate one price to the other. Completely different procedures.
I don’t have any quarrel with refinishing old cars to get more productive life out of them. What I have a problem with is the ridiculous size of the graphics, and their obvious future as tagger bait.
That part’s a waste of money. A smaller, higher placed graphic could have been applied out of reach of spray bombs, and at a FRACTION of the cost.
Kate:
I think you’re nit picking. This is the first re-paint in over 25 years. $10k per car for another 25 years is not a lot. The decals are likely a small fraction of that cost, and I doubt the decals would be much cheaper even if they were half the size. Taggers will hit the cars no matter what size the lettering in is. (It’s time to stop selling spray bombs to anyone who even looks under 25.)
…heh, that Festus guy gets around, Alberta and Saskatchewan hopper cars
😉
But yeah, see those warm and fuzzie Sask ads on the C-train (cattle train) here in Calgary.
If the commies that run Sask hadn’t scared all the business out then this type of project could have been run as advertising for the province and local business and not cost the taxpayer a dime. Socialists: make wage slaves pay for everything.
Say Kate, can you get a government grant to paint flames on those cars?? Please don’t hurt me 😉
The way the cash is flowing out of Regina I’d say you flatlanders are headed for the polls as soon as the crop is in the ground.
“any time I need a car painted I do all the prep work myself”
I always wondered how you guys manage to get the car from your house to the paint shop with all that spinning newspapers and masking tape on it…
😉
rb:
“any time I need a car painted I do all the prep work myself and then pay 500 – 600 for the actual painting.”
Yep. And prep, fixing rust and dents, etc. takes a couple of days…$80/hr x 16 hrs = $1280, plus your $500 for the actual painting, plus taxes and shop supplies, etc. equals around $2000.
Depending what kind of paint you use, it can be $100 to $200 plus per gallon, and that’s the minimium needed to paint a car. I’m guessing, but it would probably take about 50 gallons to paint a hopper car.
What is the problem here? Somebody has to make those railcars sitting on sidings lok like they actually serve a purpose.After all,thanks to the CWB,they sure as hell aren’t moving any grain,so let the spray-bomb artistes have some fun! Fing socialist asshats.
someone said ‘Festus’…I’m reading fetus…explain please.