Tech Rec details lane repair funding request

by Corbin Pon, Assistant News Editor

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Tech Rec is planning to request $225,000 from the Student Government Association(SGA) to pay for new pinsetters and new equipment to replace the current system running its bowling lanes. The eight current pinsetters were manufactured in the 1950s and 1960s and were previously used before being installed in the 1970s.

According to a report provided to SGA by Tech Rec, the current system experiences failures for every 200 to 800 frames of play. These failures result in repair downtimes that can take anywhere from a few minutes to weeks, depending on the severity of the problem. The new pinsetters that Tech Rec has proposed buying have a failure every 3000 frames or more.

“Parts and repairs for the new equipment average $125 per year....About $1,000 per year is very low compared to what we are spending now....An estimated $4,000 annual savings per year on parts cost,” said Rich Steele, Student Center director.

Chris Jordan, sixth-year Computer Science major and Tech Rec equipment manager, said that the new pinsetters will be a 30-year investment, will reduce maintenance costs and will reduce downtime. In addition to the pinsetters, the scoring system, the bowling lane oiling machine and the oil remover will also be replaced.

In the 2006 and 2007 fiscal years, the parts and labor costs for repairing the pinsetters were about $12 thousand and $15 thousand, respectively. In the future, Tech Rec anticipates the cost of maintenance for the pinsetters will climb to $40,000 annually if they are not replaced.

“The machines are old and deteriorating....Parts for our pinsetters are being phased out. Brunswick, the pinsetter maker, is not making as many parts for these machines as before. They don’t want to be making parts for these machines anymore. They don’t even want see these machines around anymore. This means finding parts for these machines is expensive,” Jordan said.

Tech Rec said they are requesting money from SGA for two reasons. The first is because they don’t make the kind of money to pay for the new equipment. The second being that Tech Rec serves the student body, and they are asking SGA to invest in them for that reason.

“We try to keep prices low for the students so that they can bowl. We are not looking to make any money. The only time we make any money is when [outside] groups rent out the place....The money that we do make goes into maintaining this place,” Jordan said.

“Because [Tech Rec] is part of the Student Center, we want to offer the best service to the students,” said Jessica Calhoun, fifth-year Aerospace Engineering major and Tech Rec employee.

Taking the $225,000 cost of the equipment replacement and prorating it across the 30 year period that Tech Rec has set out, the annual cost would be $7,500. Jordan said that the current machines could be operated for another 10 years, but in that time, the maintenance costs would amount to the price of buying the new system.

In satisfaction surveys conducted by Tech Rec, 54 percent of students polled in 2007 said they never went to Tech Rec, up from 36 percent in 2004. Also, 41 percent of intramural bowlers said they were dissatisfied with the bowling equipment, and a regional bowling tournament held in 2006 had scathing comments about equipment problems and ball damage.

“The lanes could be better oiled. The balls are a little dirty. It’s what I expect from a bowling alley,” said Derek Campbell, a bowler using the lanes on Wednesday night.

Steele said that the drop in student participation at Tech Rec is in some part due to the failing equipment.

Of the total revenue that Tech Rec receives, around one-third of it comes from bowling. In the 2006 and 2007 fiscal years, the bowling revenues were around $36,000 and $40,000, respectively. Between this time, the number of total games played rose by 11 percent.

“Nationally and internationally, the popularity of bowling has grown. We’re hearing more and more student centers around the country that are being built are putting the bowling lanes in,” Steele said. “Our peer schools... are seeing growth in bowling. We’re seeing a little bit of that in popularity, but we should be seeing more of that.”

“We have four student mechanics who are really lucky and really good....We lose a lot of business because of the bad equipment. We’d love to see more use, that’s what we’re here for,” Jordan said.

He added that conditions for the mechanics were dangerous. The new machines would make repairs easier and safer.