ORACLE ELEVATOR ANNOUNCES NEW TECHNOLOGY CENTER
ORACLE ELEVATOR ANNOUNCES NEW TECHNOLOGY CENTER
Tampa, Florida-based Oracle Elevator has begun construction on its new technology center, company President and CEO Paul Belliveau announced on March 7. The center, located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, will provide the company with support in several major areas, including technical assistance to field employees; technical, safety, sales and management training; circuit-board testing, repair and certification; and research. Ken Pixley, who Belliveau noted has 20 years’ experience developing a similar operation, will lead the technology center. Oracle provides maintenance, repair and modernization services for OEM equipment through 25 branch offices in 13 states.
NAESA BOARDS MEET IN LAS VEGAS
NAESA International boards met in Las Vegas in late February to wrap up year-end business and discuss updates to educational credit allowed for code-meeting attendance and in-house training. NAESA objectives were discussed and documented. NAESA Executive Director Bob Shepherd introduced Certification Coordinator Emerald McGehee, Education Coordinator Megan Fitzmaurice and Education Director Jack Day. Instructors are Charlie Slater, Jonathan Brooks, Bill Snyder and Greg DeCola. Following the Board of Certification meeting, the executive and finance committees met. The full board, which includes Chris Shade (secretary), Paul Zweig, Dan Schmaltz, Gary Barnes, Stephanie Coyne, Jim Borwey, Dean McLellan (president), Slater, Snyder (vice president), Carl McDilda, Chris Dodds (treasurer) and Barry Blackaby, with board advisors George Gibson and Davis Turner conferenced in by phone, were scheduled to meet the next day.
REVAMPED ISM RACEWAY TO BOAST NEW ELEVATORS, ESCALATORS
Four escalators and nine elevators are among upgrades in store for the grandstand areas of ISM Raceway at Avondale near Phoenix, USA Today reports. The NASCAR track is undergoing a US$178-million renovation, scheduled for completion in November, that includes 45,000 new grandstand seats and 54 suites. One of the track’s two new entryways, outfitted with new escalators, was scheduled to open this past weekend. Parent company International Speedway Corp. is behind the project.
U.K. UNIVERSITY LAWYERS CALL FOR CREATION OF “ROBOT TAX”
Companies that use automation should not be able to avoid wage taxes collected by the government, lawyers from the University of Surry (UNIS) in the U.K. argue in a paper to be published soon. They say current policy results in reduced tax revenue and increased unemployment, and that the system should be changed to make taxes neutral between robots and human workers. An automation tax based on redundancy data would be used to collect further taxes based on the extent the government believes automation led to layoffs. UNIS Professor of Law and Health Sciences Ryan Abbott says the present system presents “a clear and present danger to many jobs and tax revenues.”
