Atlanta to Toronto

Your publisher traveled at the end of July making a wide circle in the U.S. and Canada. First was a day in Atlanta with the National Association of Elevator Contractors (NAEC) Education Committee, led by Delaware Elevator’s Dave Smarte. Primarily an update meeting, the committee approved more than 20 new continuing-education programs, either seminar, article-based or in-house training. Remote exam proctoring, in beta testing phase, was discussed, as was the possibility of adding training for wind-turbine elevators. It was here that NAEC announced it had been approved to submit an application for apprenticeship with the Certified Accessibility Technician (CAT®) program. If approved, CAT would be the first two-year program to be accepted by the U.S. Department of Labor. Your publisher reported on two major revisions in progress: the CAT-S and CET-S manuals. 

Moving on from Atlanta, your publisher flew north to Toronto. Premier Elevator’s Tom Rennick provided a city tour and very quick trip to Premier Elevator. With ELEVATOR WORLD having done an article on the company in the July issue, I was anxious to meet the CEO, Dino Mele, and see the factory firsthand. Rennick noted the recent opening of a division for residential elevators, and the factory was full of cabs large and small. Neil Suddard showed off the glass cabs and entrances for the Mississauga Transit system. Suddard, who worked for many years with Northern Elevator, had many old friends in common with your publisher and found we even shared a print of an elevator cab by Clayton Pond in our offices. Next, Mele showed off some wonderful photographic montages done for cabs in a bank in Montreal and introduced me to the staff artist involved in the project.

Time flew by, and too soon, we were on a traffic-packed drive back to downtown Toronto. By the way, if you were wondering where all the construction cranes in the U.S. are, they are in Toronto. The city is in a perpetual renewal phase, with buildings coming down to make room for new ones and transit lines being extended. And, everywhere you look, there are cranes.

Back downtown, your publisher was invited to sit in on the Elevator Escalator Safety Foundation of Canada (EESFC)’s board meeting in a great restaurant called “Shoeless Joe’s.” Present were: Chairman Gord Pattison, Steve Husband, Mike Alcott, Rennick, Edith Kirkpatrick and EESFC Administrator Barbara Allen. Most of the agenda concerned how to get the Safe-T Rider© program into more schools in Canada. The lack of a French version was a problem in previous years, but all felt the new program, translated by The Peelle Co.’s Steve Mullen, would ease this issue. New promotions and fundraisers were discussed, and plans for the EESFC Cruise that evening were reviewed with everyone. A silent prayer was said that rain would hold off – and it did. (See p. 62 for the Toronto cruise.) The following directors were reelected: Andy Reistetter, representing the National Elevator Escalator Association, Kirkpatrick representing the Western Region, and Pattison, director at large. The current officers were also re-elected for a two-year term: Pattison, chairman; Alison Whittaker, vice chair; and Rennick, secretary-treasurer. Barbara Allen was reelected EESFC administrator. Following the evening cruise of Toronto’s spectacular waterfront, your publisher headed home to Mobile, Alabama, an unlikely place, but where it is always good to return.