Published 2010-04-28T00:00:00Z”/>

Andrea Wagner

From inside campus elevators, it doesn’t take much to notice the arrows, circles and lines painted, colored or scraped onto the covers of the elevator-use permits.

Until last week, the marks pointed out the expired date shown on the elevator permits.

The marked-up covers showed that some people such as freshman Molly McPherson, a pre-nursing major, were concerned about the elevators.

McPherson uses the library elevators almost every day, she said.

“Sometimes I think they’re going to break down on me when I’m in there alone,” she said.

Until last week, some permits posted were more than a year out-of-date.

However, there is nothing to worry about, said Neil Nunn, chief engineer of Chico State Facilities Management &’ Services.

The date on the permit does not reflect the amount of work done to maintain the elevators, said Nick Coatney, supervising electrician at Chico State.

“It’s like licensing your car,” Coatney said. “It doesn’t make it run any better.”

Coatney and his staff are not legally allowed to do any work on the elevators, he said. The university hires an independent company that is licensed to work on them.

Chico State pays $83,680 to ThyssenKrupp Elevator Americas each year to maintain elevators on campus, Nunn said.

This does not include elevators inside housing facilities or Associated Students buildings, which operate within different budgets, he said. The amount also does not cover vandalism or other additional expenses not related to operating the lifts.

Students can trust that the elevators on campus are safe to use, said Joe Wills, director of Public Affairs &’ Publications.

“The service contract we have to maintain the elevators is not a requirement, but we do it in the best interest of our campus,” he said.

This is in addition to the roughly $5,000 paid to the state to do the annual inspections.

Delays in permit inspections come from the state, Coatney said. The state sets the inspections schedule. In the past, inspectors have been almost two years behind schedule.

Strict laws govern the use of any elevator in the state, said Krisann Chasarik, a spokeswoman for Cal/OSHA.

The State Department of Industrial Relations oversees the Division of Occupational Safety and Health, which is in charge of the state’s Elevator Unit.

A principal safety engineer in the elevator unit oversees seven districts that split up the task of inspecting elevators in each area of the state.

There are about 91,000 elevators statewide, Chasarik said.

“We do have issues with keeping pace,” she said. “We do have a backlog.”

Elevator Safety Orders are issued under the California Labor Code, sections 7300 to 7324.2. The law streamlines who can work on elevators, how often they are checked and how elevators and other riding-type equipment such as escalators can be used.

If a problem exists, the elevator is shut down and deemed inoperable until the issue is fixed by a licensed contractor, Nunn said.

So far, Chico State has never had an elevator shut down, Wills said.

“We are very pleased that our elevators have an excellent record of service,” he said. “They are up and running 100 percent of the time.”

The new permits are valid through October, Nunn said. Because the state didn’t issue the paper permits to the university until February, there will most likely be another delay after the new permits expire later this year.

Someone will always be on-call in case of an emergency, Chasarik said. State workers will continue to work around the furloughs that keep their offices closed three Fridays a month.

In the meantime, students can take note &- facilities management employees say what goes up should come down on campus.

Andrea Wagner can be reached at <a href= “javascript:void(location.href=’mailto:’+String.fromCharCode(97,119,97,103,110,101,114,64,116,104,101,111,114,105,111,110,46,99,111,109)+’?subject=re%3A%20Elevator%20safety’)”> [email protected]</a>