From land to sea, there’s plenty of bids out there

By Jeff Moore

The Neeskay is the primary research vessel of the School of Freshwater Sciences’ Great Lakes WATER Institute. It has operated as a research vessel since 1970 and provides year-round access to the Great Lakes with a fully functional platform and floating laboratory.

TRACK THE NEESKAY’S VOYAGES AND GET REAL-TIME DEPTH AND TEMPERATURE DATA

The Neeskay was built in 1953 by Higgins Inc., New Orleans, and converted into a research vessel in 1970 by Peterson Builders Inc., Sheboygan. It runs at 2.5 knots trolling, 9.5 knots cruising, 11 knots maximum and has a range of 600 nautical miles. It includes full galley facilities, include refrigerators, freezers, convection microwave oven, electric countertop stove and grill, temperature control, shower, two toilets, and comfortable accommodations for four scientists overnight.

UW-Milwaukee is currently soliciting bids for inspection and repair services for the Neeskay, including haul out, dry dock, repairs and maintenance on the propeller, rudder, hull and generator. Bids are due at 2 p.m. Oct. 12.

Complete specifications for the vessel can be found HERE.

For more information on bidding, call Jim Skorlinski at (414) 229-4304 or e-mail him at jimsk@uwm.edu. Technical questions regarding equipment should be directed to Jack Orchard, marine operations manager, at (414) 382-1703, send a fax to (414) 382-1705, or e-mail him at jorchard@uwm.edu.

Contract documents can be viewed HERE.

• Also up for bid is a first-time solicitation for Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is contracting for helicopter net-gun capture and transport services of adult white tailed deer for research purposes throughout northern Wisconsin (Sawyer, Price and Rusk counties) and east-central Wisconsin (Shawano, Waupaca and Outagamie counties).

The contract is for a minimum of 60, but preferably 90, adult deer (about 60 males, 30 females) in each region of the state.

The contract is for one year with two one-year renewal options. Primary concern regarding work conducted under contract will be the safety and health of animals during and after capture and safety of state of Wisconsin personnel involved with capture events.

The capture events and processes the contractor will be asked to perform include a helicopter netgun capture and transporting animals with helicopter back to a basecamp for processing by Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources staff and volunteers. After processing, all deer will be released from the basecamp.

Bids are due at 2 p.m. Oct. 19.

Questions concerning this bid request are encouraged and are to be submitted in writing to Konrad K. Plachetta at konrad.plachetta@wisconsin.gov. Contract documents can be viewed HERE.

And finally, what grammatical term applies to the following: GPS system, ATM machine, PIN number and MPB Builders? Hint: they are NOT recursive acronyms.

I run across terms like these periodically and they sound ridiculously redundant when you say all the words aloud, but on paper they look fine.

Jeff Moore, also not a recursive acronym, is a data reporter at The Daily Reporter.