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Daily Hampshire Gazette - Valley elevators go uninspected
By Dan Crowley - 5/21/2010

NORTHAMPTON - Eleven of the city's dozen public elevators are out of compliance with annual state inspections, including an elevator in the downtown parking garage that hasn't been checked since 2008. Across the region, other elevators are also operating with lapsed certificates, due to state inaction.

The 20-year-old E. John Gare III Parking Garage elevator, which shut for repairs Monday, is operating with a temporary, 90-day certificate of inspection that expired more than a year ago.

The state Department of Public Safety, responsible for inspecting all elevators in the commonwealth, likely issued the temporary certificate because an inspector found a problem during an annual safety check in December 2008.

"I don't even recall what it was, but they never came back," said William A. Letendre, the city's parking director. "There's nothing I can do about it."

The lack of timely elevator inspections in Northampton is symptomatic of a long-running and widespread backlog across the state. It has raised public safety and revenue concerns in state Auditor A. Joseph DeNucci's office for the second time in the past six years.

Last week, DeNucci released an audit which found that 11,419 of 37,494 elevator inspection certificates (30 percent) at the state DPS were expired. Some elevators have gone as long as four years without a state inspection under an inefficient licensing and tracking system, the review found.

DeNucci estimates the backlog has cost the state as much as $6.5 million in revenues. Owners of nearly half the elevators with expired certificates have not re-applied for annual inspections, costing the state $2.1 million in revenue. He said the state has lost another $4.3 million when annual inspections have not been conducted for years and when fines were not collected.

DeNucci described the backlog as a "long-term problem with potential public safety risk," and strongly emphasized re- investment in the state's elevator inspection program.

State law requires annual elevator inspections at a fee of $400. It is up to elevator owners to apply for re-inspection within 60 days of the expiration of their last state-issued certificate. Many do, but the state often shows up to inspect those elevators months or years after their certificates have expired. In addition, enforcement against elevator owners who do not seek re-inspection is also lacking.

"Fortunately, there have not been any major incidents to date and I hope there never are," DeNucci said last week. "Every dollar invested in this area will bring positive returns in terms of revenue and public safety."

Elevators uninspected

In Northampton, 92 percent of city-owned elevators have expired inspection certificates, a figure that far exceeds the 30 percent identified by DeNucci statewide.

At the same time, many other public and privately owned elevators in the city have not received a safety check from a state inspector in more than a year, a Gazette review finds. They include elevators at the Northampton Housing Authority's Walter Salvo House on Conz Street, Old School Commons and Thornes Marketplace.

Elevators in all but one of the city's public schools are operating with expired inspection certificates, as are elevators at City Hall, Memorial Hall and the Puchalski Municipal Building.

"We are almost totally out of certification with our elevators," said David Pomerantz, director of the city's Central Services Department. "It's ridiculous."

A Gazette review of 22 public and privately owned elevators elsewhere in the area finds about half are operating with expired state inspection certificates. Some of those buildings include Easthampton's municipal building, a freight elevator at the Paragon Arts & Industry Building on Pleasant Street, the Robert Frost Library at Amherst College and a three-story commercial building at 39 Main St. in Northampton.

The Gazette visited elevators in three buildings on the University of Massachusetts campus and three at Smith College and found all six elevators current on inspections, including the W.E.B. Du Bois Library at UMass, where a serious elevator accident in 2007 raised public safety concerns, but injured no one.

Elevators in three hotels along Route 9 in Hadley were in compliance and elevators in two of those establishments were just inspected in the past 10 days.

Staffing inadequate

State public safety officials say they do not have enough staff to keep up with the 37,000-plus elevators that require annual inspections, a number that grows by about 1,500 a year with new construction and renovations.

What's more, they say an expansion of the definition of elevator twice in the past five years has exacerbated the inspection backlog. Inspectors are responsible not only for the safety of traditional elevators, but also escalators, conveyors, wheelchair and automobile lifts, among many other devices recognized by the state Board of Elevator Regulations.

Terrel Harris, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety, said that of the 30 percent of elevators behind in inspections cited by DeNucci, most have been inspected within two years.

He said it's important to note that most elevators are routinely maintained by elevator mechanics in the absence of state inspections. He reiterated that owners are obligated to contact the state for annual inspections and that while a new state database is expected to help track and schedule inspections more efficiently, it won't solve the problem.

"Even if everybody is doing that, and we have the best software in the world, we are still going to have a substantial backlog without more inspectors," Harris told the Gazette in an email.

A group of 40 state inspectors is responsible for the safety of elevators in the commonwealth, three of whom cover the Springfield area full-time, he said.

Efficiency questioned

The city of Northampton is paying $18,000 to an elevator company for the monthly maintenance of its dozen elevators. The money includes the $400 fees for annual state elevator inspections. The company is responsible for filing necessary paperwork and scheduling those inspections.

"They don't do them in a lump shot," Pomerantz said, of the state inspectors. "They pick and choose. It's just so random."

Like others interviewed, Pomerantz said the state inspections require several parties to be present, including electricians, alarm companies or fire department personnel. He said he's been told some of the city's elevators are scheduled for inspections in June.

State public safety officials say it isn't simple to schedule inspections. Getting them done depends on receiving applications and lining up the experts who attend inspections. That can make the process appear random.

"It's not just the department that needs to be there," Harris said.

Paul Benjamin, the owner of two elevators in Hadley, said he's spoken with state inspectors who, after checking his elevators, have told him their next stop is as far north as Greenfield. As an observer, he said, the state's inspection program appears inefficient.

"If the state has less money, they have to find more efficient ways of doing this stuff," Benjamin said. "Having them shoot around in a ricochet around the Valley is ridiculous. Package them all together. Just get them all on the same cycle."

Benjamin, who pays about $1,100 in fees and associated costs for his state elevator inspections annually, said he can't comprehend how the state cuts back on a public safety service that charges a $400 fee for inspections and, according to the state auditor, loses millions of dollars in revenues.

"They're a double check on the work the (elevator) company is doing," he said. "If there's something out of compliance, they're going to let you know."