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www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

SPRING 2015

A Message From PHCCWA President:

PHCC of Washington PHCC of Washington News is published twice per year for the Plumbing, Heating & Cooling Contractors of Washington Association Greta Flinn, Executive Director PO Box 64580, University Place, WA 98464-0580 Toll Free: (888) 891-9240 Fax: (866) 272-2545 http://www.phccwa.org For information on advertising in this magazine, please contact the publisher: Jim Aitkins • Blue Water Publishers, LLC • (360) 805-6474 jima@bluewaterpublishers.com www.bluewaterpublishers.com The publisher cannot assume responsibility for claims made by advertisers, content provided by the editor, or for the opinions expressed by contributing authors.

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ho are you and what will you become? I recently read a quote that was very thought provoking. It said, “You are the average of the five people you associate with the most.” Who are you associating with? Are you in the crowd that worries and complains about other people in our industry (what they change or how they do business) or are you trying to improve it? Gerald Church Through PHCC I have found a group of people whose goal it is to make this industry and their businesses better each day. I know that I, and my business, are both stronger and more profitable because of my association with PHCC. PHCC has many ways to help us be better business people and better technicians. QSC is an arm of PHCC that specializes in training owners to be better business people...great people to associate with! Consider where average will be for you. Go forth and prosper Gerald Church President PHCC Washington President J & K Plumbing, Inc.

Contents: 4 6 10 12 16 19 20 22 25 26 28 29 30 4

From the Desk of the PHCCWA President - Gerald Church Your Shower is Wasting Huge Amounts of Energy and Water PHCCWA Career Day 2015 The Value of Retaining Older Workers Vehicle Considerations Federated’s HR Question of the Month Workforce Development A Short Story of Plumbing PHCCWA Contractor Membership Application Chef a “Staple” in Macy’s Kitchen PHCCWA Annual Golf Tournament Registration PHCCWA Annual Golf Tournament Sponsorship Form PHCC Active Members Are Key to Our Success

10 22

www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

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wasting HUGE Your shower is

amounts of ENERGY and WATER

Here’s what you can do about it.

By Chris Mooney, The Washington Post

ou know that moment well: You’ve turned on the shower, but there’s no way you’re getting into it quite yet. The water’s not hot enough. So you start your routine, whatever it is — doing some chores, answering some e-mails — while the water runs and runs, much of it already hot. Shower wonks have dubbed this extremely common pattern “behavioral waste,” or waste that occurs because of human habits. And there appears to be quite a lot of it. “Typically 20 percent of every shower, the duration, is essentially lost,” says Jonah Schein, technical coordinator for homes and buildings for the EPA’s WaterSense program. “The average shower is a little over eight minutes long, so that’s a good chunk of the shower that we’re not actually being able to utilize.” For a standard shower head, every minute wasted equates to 2.5 gallons of water — and insofar as some of it is warm, says Schein, “that’s energy-rich water that we’re running down the drain.” And research conducted by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has suggested that the waste levels may be even higher — 30 percent of shower water overall and 41 percent of “hot water energy.” Run the numbers and there’s no getting around the fact that we have a gigantic problem here, people. Showering drives almost 17 percent of water use in homes, and an average American family uses some 40 gallons of water per day in the shower. This amounts to 1.2 trillion gallons of water in the United States each year, says EPA, “enough to supply the water needs of New York and New Jersey” over the same time period. If 20 percent of that is wasted, well, you’re talking about over 200 billion gallons, in a world where gigantic states (California) and megacities (Sao Paulo, Brazil) are suffering from drought and water scarcity problems are expected to become still worse in the decades ahead. What’s more, because water coming out of shower heads is supposed to be hot water, showers are also energy hogs.

They’re typically one of the largest drags on the hot water heater in the home, and water heating itself accounts for almost 17 percent of total home electricity, according to the Department of Energy. Thus, cutting back on hot water waste in showers has a double benefit, saving water and power and money on two separate bills. But how do you get people to do it? “The shower is a really personal thing, and people don’t want to really change a whole lot,” notes Troy Sherman, one of the founders of Evolve Technologies, which makes water-saving shower products. The point was made rather unforgettably in 1992, when the U.S. government mandated that shower heads get more efficient — reducing the top flow rate down to 2.5 gallons per minute. This led to a great volume of complaints that shower flows were too weak — including a classic 1996 “Seinfeld “episode in which the gang got so peeved at newly installed low-flow shower heads that they turned to the black market for an alternative. People “desire hot water now, and they desire it never running out in their shower,” explains Gary Klein, a consultant on water and energy sustainability. Human desires notwithstanding, water and hot water waste in showers is quickly emerging as one of the biggest home energy and efficiency issues, in part because many others — energy hog refrigerators, say — have been dealt with by ever improving appliance standards. Moreover, the problem of behavioral waste seems to be getting worse, for a surprising reason — people today have bigger houses, meaning longer pipes. “It’s taking longer and longer for hot water to arrive at the shower or other points of use over the home,” says Sherman. “So people have started to develop a habit of turning on their shower, then leaving and walking away, and going and doing other things as they wait for the hot water to arrive.” So, what are the solutions — at least for those of us who are actually willing to make some changes? www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

1. Install an EPA-certified shower head. The EPA’s WaterSense program now labels water efficient shower heads, certifying those whose flow rates are below 2 gallons per minute. The agency asserts that “the average family could save 2,900 gallons per year” with one of these shower heads — and that in energy terms, that translates into “370 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, enough to power a house for 13 days.” But of course, with low-flow rates, some consumers are likely to wonder whether such shower heads give them enough water force. The EPA’s Schein says he’s “confident” these shower heads do so. One issue with low-flow shower heads is that a double whammy can occur when you both reduce the flow rate and also live in a building where the water pressure is already low. However, there’s a way to address this called “pressure compensating flow regulation,” which “lets us vary the amount of water coming through the shower head based on the flow rate, so that we’re delivering a fairly even amount of water regardless of the pressure in the home,” says Evolve Technologies’ Sherman. The EPA estimates that if every U.S. home used these new certified shower heads, the savings on water bills could amount to $2.2 billion — along with $ 2.6 billion in energy bills. In terms of water that doesn’t go to waste, that could save 260 billion gallons each year.

4. What about saving cold water, too? And then, there’s the issue of trying to cut down on the waste of cold water before the hot water even arrives at the shower. To address this, the company Advanced Conservation Technology Inc. manufactures a device that sits beneath the sink at the water outlet that’s furthest from your hot water heater, and can be activated wirelessly or by a button. When you turn it on, the device sends the lukewarm or cool water that’s sitting in your pipes to the water heater, thus allowing new hot water to come to where you want it to be. The company says that the result is “getting hot water to the fixtures three to four times faster (on average)” — and of course that means less cold water running out when you turn the shower on. The fact that all these fixes have to be designed, of course, suggests that our water and water heating systems are highly inefficient. And while at least some of the technologies above aren’t that expensive, they still tend to be the exception rather than the rule in most homes. In sum, there’s a long way to go before our showers cease to be the major energy and water wasters that they are. But there’s much we can do to try to fix the problem. “There’s a tremendous amount of water and a tremendous amount of energy to be saved,” says the EPA’s Schein.

2. Cut down behavioral waste with a special shower valve. Evolve Technologies has designed a “thermostatic shut-off valve” that can be installed behind the shower head. The device lets cold water flow out when the shower is first turned on, but then tamps down on any more flow when water hotter than 95 degrees arrives. So when water stops flowing in the shower, you know hot water has arrived, and then you can get in and pull a cord to manually turn the flow back on. According to Sherman, 750,000 of these devices are now in homes because they’ve been included in a number of large energy efficiency programs run by utility companies. 3. Rescuing the energy from hot water that went down the drain. A considerably more expensive home retrofit, meanwhile, can help your home recover some of the heat that is lost from warm water cycling down the drain. There’s a great deal to be recovered, because the Department of Energy estimates that a stunning 80 percent to 90 percent of the heat energy that our home water heater adds to our water ends up going down the drain. That energy could be used to reheat more water for use in the shower, dishwasher or washer. That energy can be captured through a drain water heat recovery system installed in the drain itself. The system uses a conductive metal — like copper — to capture some of the heat from the departing water and transfer it to cold water that needs to be heated up. In essence, it’s a way of taking energy that would be lost and cycling it back into the home’s water system. 8

www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

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PHCC of Washington

CAREER DAY

2015

By Sean Daly, The Art of Plumbing & Larry Fischer, Prima Plumbing

PHCC of Washington was recently invited to present at

the Northshore School District’s Job Fair at Northshore Jr. High in Bothell. I had a wonderful experience with the Job Fair this year. According to the teachers, it was the first time a plumber had presented at NJH. I learned a lot from the interaction with the students as the six 20 minute presentations flew by. I found that it was important, as they entered the classroom, to have the students come up and check out the various tools, plumbing fittings and displays we had set up. We briefly went over pay scale, the importance of math, science, and physics to the trades and the need for young women and men to enter the trades. We averaged approximately 10 boys and 3 girls per session of 7th - 9th graders. We were very surprised and encouraged by the amount of young women attending our talk. The best part of the whole experience was on the way back to the truck, a 9th grader stopped me and said, “you had one of the best presentations”, “cause you had cool tools

& things & stuff “. That’s right, as plumbers, we do have cool tools & things & stuff! PHCC members have determined that a critical first step to involve young people in our industry is to avail ourselves of the opportunity to present at middle school and high school career days. The Rotary Club of Edmonds invited contractor participation at Scriber Lake Alternative High School Career Day on February 11, 2015. Daryl Miller of the Fischer Plumbing Company set up Terry Clinton of that company to present “Plumbing” to the Career Day class. Pat Dickinson of Service Plumbing and Heating was called and also brought plumbing and heating props and tools to augment his presentation. The alternative students did not appear

CONCRETE INTERCEPTORS AREN’T ALL THEY’RE CRACKED UP TO BE. 10

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www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

very attentive or receptive to the presentations. Later it was learned a PHCC member contractor had hired a student from the school and was very pleased with him as a worker with the field crew. North Shore Junior High School, Bothell, WA, invited plumbing professionals to Career Day for the first time in the facilitator’s memory. Members Sean Daly and Larry Fischer shared in 6 twenty minute sessions to 7th, 8th and 9th grades in the morning of March 4th. PHCC executive director, Greta Flinn, set up this program and introduced the contractors with a short introduction to each class. She distributed National PHCC handouts depicting “Constructing Your Future” plumbing, heating, cooling along with ventilation and air conditioning to those students that demonstrated a particular interest in the presentation. Students, teachers and administrators showed a keen interest in this career field, surprising since presentations were to groups of sometimes 30% young ladies. The career day facilitator advised we will certainly be invited to return next year. We look forward to these opportunities and will respond when asked to attend and participate. We are compiling a list of any PHCC member or industry person willing to be involved. Please contact Executive Director, Greta Flinn, and express your interest to participate in the way or in any way you think can benefit the effort.

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The Value of Retaining

Older Workers Prepared for the PHCC Educational Foundation by TPO, Inc.

e’ve all heard about how the aging of the Baby Boomer generation will lead to record numbers of older workers and retirees. Twenty-seven percent of the workforce was age 50 and older in 2007, but by 2016 onethird of workers will be in that age range. In the construction, repair, and maintenance industry, 24 percent of employees are older. Workers age 55 and older may seem close to retirement. However, older employees expect to continue working or to work part time past retirement age, whether for emotional or financial reasons. These older workers are a valuable resource, so retaining them for their knowledge and skills, as well as the bridge they can provide to the younger workforce, will benefit your company in the long run.

With older workers retiring, there will naturally be a loss of institutional knowledge and skills. The longer older workers stay with a company, the more they can help the company train and assimilate newer workers and decrease the impact of that loss.

WHY YOU SHOULD TRY TO RETAIN OLDER WORKERS Retaining older workers can be more cost effective in the short term for companies – reducing the costs of recruiting, onboarding, training, and retaining younger employees. It can also ease the transition from more experienced employees to new hires. Here are just a few of the qualities older workers display: • Reliability, loyalty, and stability • Maturity and professionalism • A strong work ethic

Bridge the gap between employment and retirement. As part of their quest for flexibility, older workers may want to gradually scale back their work – whether their hours, responsibilities, or workload. Companies can shift older workers into new roles in which their expertise will be valued. Employers can also provide part-time or seasonal work.

Just as important, these employees are familiar to and familiar with their company: • The company knows how to get the most out of these employees. • The employees understand the company’s customers and processes, and they have learned from past successes and failures. They can use this institutional knowledge both to continue excellent customer service and to pass on all that valuable information to younger workers. 12

HOW TO RETAIN OLDER WORKERS Older workers, like all employees, desire a workplace that respects them and meets their needs. Your company can do several things to fit that bill. Provide flexible work arrangements. Older workers value flexibility. For example, companies can allow for shorter shifts for older employees or offer a schedule that maintains a set number of hours worked, but allows changes in arrival & departure times as needed.

Emphasize health and wellness. One of the top priorities for older workers is to maintain access to health insurance. Retaining valuable older employees can outweigh the costs of giving them access to healthcare coverage. This can include providing healthcare for part-time workers and plans that offer coverage to dependents. Offer training. Older workers, just like younger workers, need and want to update their skills. Older employees can often learn more efficiently than their less experienced peers by applying new knowledge to their existing knowledge – and they then have the opportunity to pass along their knowledge to younger workers. [continued on page 15]

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[continued from page 12]

Recognize contributions. All employees want to feel valued, and they will be more satisfied with their jobs if they are recognized for their contributions. Companies can provide this recognition by asking older workers to continue working and assigning those new – and important – roles. Such assignments can facilitate two important strategies for retaining older workers that benefit their employers: • Provide for growth opportunities. • Mentoring. Older workers can continue to work in their field by mentoring – and their employers can therefore maintain access to their skills and knowledge. A company can offer incentives for mentoring; change the employee’s position to that of mentor; or bring older workers back to train younger workers or help the company onboard them. Assist in planning for retirement. Many older employees don’t know if they’re financially ready to retire or understand the financial implications of retirement, so employer-provided retirement planning assistance can be a valuable tool for them. Also, if there’s an open dialogue about retirement in the workplace, older workers will be more likely to engage with their supervisors about their plans for retirement. The company will be better able to retain these workers and bridge the gap between older and younger workers.

HOW TO HELP OLDER WORKERS PLAN FOR RETIREMENT You should not advise your employees on Social Security and pension issues, but you can give them the opportunity to obtain this information by sponsoring financial literacy programs via your retirement plan’s vendor. Other Resources: • AARP: http://aarp.org Provides information to older workers, including resources for employees looking to whether they’re ready for retirement and how to prepare. • The Social Security Administration: http://www.ssa. gov/onlineservices/ Provides information on Social Security, Medicare, and access to benefits. Older employees present a valuable resource to companies. By providing a workplace that offers opportunities, flexibility, and greater retirement security to these workers, employers can maintain access to their skills and knowledge and ease the transition from older to younger workers.

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News • Spring 2015

12/18/14 10:48 AM15

E L C I VEH IONS T A R E D I S CON

By Sean Daly The Art of Plumbing

ecently, we were in the market for a new truck for the company. We currently have some older model trucks and were in need of the tax deduction, so we started by looking at similar vehicles to our existing fleet. It just so happened that we were heading to the PHCCWA Owner’s Event and a couple of truck venders were on hand. We discussed pricing and options for a new truck. We had a cab-over box truck already and they seemed like a good fit, but I was interested in a diesel engine model due to the high gas prices (with our trucks getting 6 to 7 miles a gallon). With a new truck, I was looking at over fifty thousand dollars to get a new diesel engine HD box van without any shelving. That’s quite a lot of money for a truck, not including financing. I sat down and started adding up the cost of purchase, shelving, inventory, maintenance and insurance, and I discovered it was way over sixty thousand dollars. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to extend myself out that far. I feel I’m a little more cautious after the 2008 crash and recession. After we got back home, I was going over the pros and cons of the New -vs- Used info from the Owner’s Event. I started looking at the stack of invoices on the desk for service work completed. Only for 10 percent of the service work jobs completed did we provide anything more than labor and installation materials for the job. Our business model has changed since we are rarely supplying fixtures. I can’t sell a customer a faucet anymore because they can get it cheaper on-line or straight from the supply house. “Oh… we have everything, my wife’s ex-brother-in-law’s uncle gave us his discount at the supply house.” The customers are quite savvy about looking up items on the internet. So they usually have the fixtures or parts for you to install from the internet or courtesy of the manufacturer’s 1800

line; or they send us a picture by email or phone of the issue, if they want us to pick it up. This made it incredibly clear to me that we just don’t need the big truck anymore. If we don’t have it on the truck they can pay for us to pick it up. Sorry, got off track, back to the trucks. So now I’m focused on the smaller trucks with better gas millage. It seems to me that the truck industry is going for the smaller European style trucks these days. I asked owners of Dodge, Mercedes, Nissan, and Ford trucks how they liked their vans but either their purchase was too new to know or just having a new truck might be making them a little bias. The only issue was that all the trucks were creeping up into the 35 to 45 thousand dollar range (pre tax & licensing) for a vanilla box. And they still had to buy shelves and install them. Plus, all of them came with gas engines at 13 to 19 mpg except the Mercedes which came with the diesel and averaged 20 plus mpg loaded but was still “over 50 grand out the door new”, as per an owner’s statement. I know one electrician who has been changing out his fleet with used Sprinters. He gave me a lot of advice on which make and model to purchase. So I settled on a USED sprinter, hopefully, with shelves. www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

I looked for awhile and every time I decided on one, I would call and it would be gone. They said they sold it the first day it was on craigslist and I was the 10th guy to call. This went on for 2 months. Until, one day, I saw it, on a used car lot, parked in the back. I wasn’t even sure it was for sale until I pulled into the lot and saw the info sheet on the passenger’s window. The salesman didn’t even know it was for sale, let alone for how much. I took it for a test drive while he checked with the manager on price. When I got back I was told they couldn’t go any lower than $13,900.00. SOLD! I just found it -a nice Dodge Sprinter that was a parts delivery truck for a dealership. It had 160,000 miles and was in great shape, not smoked in, had power mirrors, ac, power locks, newer tires, was fun to drive and I could stand up in the back! It did not have shelving but I purchased some nice shelving off of craigslist for $1,500.00 and installed it over the weekend. At first, it got 24 mpg and kept dropping the more I added shelving and inventory. Now it averages about 20 mpg; that is more than 3 times our 08 Isuzu. Here are the facts! I have a 05 Dodge Sprinter with a life expectancy of 450,000 miles. It gets 3 times the gas mileage of the old truck. I save $900.00 plus a month on the monthly payment. I fill it up 3 to 4 times a month as opposed to 7 to 9 times a month. It is a ¾ ton so you don’t have to wait for the big tow truck and pay more if something goes wrong. It is fun and comfortable to drive. This is my estimated first year savings: Gas mileage - We average about 18 thousand miles a year. Allowing for a dollar price difference in gas vs diesel we saved approximately $6,000.00 dollars. Labor to fill gas- Our big truck usually has a Journeyman and an Apprentice and I’m going to add it up in lost hourly income potential. Each time they fill up it takes at least a ½ hour out of the day. They fill up at least 4 more times per month = 18 hrs a year. Use your own rates to figure that out but I’ll say about $4,000.00 – $6,000.00 dollars of potential lost income. Maintenance- The big trucks are expensive to maintain and seem to take longer to get back from the dealership than your local mechanic. Every new truck I’ve purchased has had to have major work done on it within the first couple of years. New transmission, water pump that failed, brakes rotor failures, exhaust manifold gaskets, and so on. I know the Sprinter is expensive to maintain (per electrician with 10 plus Sprinters), but buying a used one and the savings allows for some security knowing you have the money in the bank to fix it. I could buy a new engine & transmission with the savings from the first year alone. There is the tax write off for the new purchase, but you still have to make the monthly payment. Always check with your business adviser or CPA, to see what the best plan is for your business situation. So with these considerations, I’ve decided to keep the cash on hand. My best decision was the used 05 Dodge Sprinter. 18

www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

WORK FORCE A

By Larry Fischer, Prima Plumbing

DEVELOPMENT

s most Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors (PHCC) members have experienced first-hand, trying to fill that critical journey level on the team is very daunting. Some contractors are resigned to only growing their company operations as fast as they can bring in raw field recruits and train them up to the journey level. When the recession came on us and workers became expendable due to lack of demand for customer services, some were lost to other industries. Boeing Co. was the recipient of a number of able workers even journey level. Once there, they will not likely return to this industry. Some workers have come in from other states but even that is dicey and hard to evaluate the talent they bring and they must become certified to work in the State of Washington. Several years back the average age of a Washington State journeyman plumber had reached 57 years. Hard to believe but if the trend continues as it is going, the public will be poorly served with even higher service costs, poorly trained inexperienced workers rushed into the work force along with the effect of the higher costs of labor in the shrinking work force. PHCC organizations on the state and national level have been slow to react to the situation now at hand! In 2013 National PHCC Board of Directors approved funding for two seats on an industry panel with four related industries also struggling with the same issue. Some urging by contractor members including those from Washington State at National Board meetings has intensified action by the National Board of Directors. President Kevin Tindal convened a task force to explore ways and means to bring the youth movement to our industry. Periodic reports will be released by PHCC Executive Vice President Kennedy on pertinent information which may be of benefit to us. So to bring a process forward locally, we will convene a work force development round table. Invited are Seattle school system teachers and administrators, special education teachers, PHCC National Auxiliary member and Education Foundation board member,

Construction Industry Training Council, community workforce development agencies, trade schools, technical schools, public school former shop teacher(now a plumber), students, PHCC Board of Directors members, PHCC contractors, along with all interested people who may want to participate. Invited are: • Seattle school system teachers and administrators • special education teachers • PHCC National Auxiliary member and Education Foundation board member • Construction Industry Training Council • community workforce development agencies • trade schools • technical schools • public school former shop teacher (now a plumber) • students • PHCC Board of Directors members • PHCC contractors, as well as all interested people who may want to participate. Interested people may contact Executive Director, Greta Flinn. The forum is being set up now but the month and date is not set at this time. Participants are being polled. At this time, it appears after that after the public school has closed for summer schedule is a better time for many to participate. We know the youth movement is needed but questions remain to be answered. Is this what we want to do? If so, how effective we will be is dependent on our commitment to do it. Some say we have no choice. We must make a serious effort as the movement of youth into our industry is critical now and will be even more so in the very near future! Stay tuned as we continue to work this event! All interested persons are invited and encouraged to attend this forum. www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

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www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

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he very description of civilization includes how people come together in communities. Amongst all of the problems which develop when large groups of people come together I show do you supply the populace with sufficient clean water and how do you get rid of the waste. For many centuries, the groups in people formed in the various experiments with civilization, were mobile. Part of the reason for this mobility was the fouling of the resources which happened when the group grew and stayed in one place too long. When early permanent settlements began to form, little thought was put into sanitary issues, because science had yet to establish the link between diseases and the unsanitary conditions in which people lived. The first known plumbing systems were installed on the Isle of Crete about 4000 years ago where Minoan Palace of Knossos featured for separate drainage systems that emptied into sewer systems constructed of stone. The Greeks also had some rudimentary systems, but many thought that it was unmanly to use hot water, so they bathed in cold water. The Romans took plumbing to a whole new level. At their peak they had both aqueducts and sewer systems, the sewer systems predating the aqueducts by about 500 years. The word “Plumber” is derived from the Latin word “plumbum” – which means “lead or lead shot.” The “plumbarius” or eventually shortened to the word “plumber” was one who worked with lead. Of course at that time in history the health effects of lead were also an unknown, but lead was an easily worked material for forming into parts and equipment for plumbing systems.

www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

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• USED TRUCKS • BUSES • PARTS & SERVICE • LEASE & RENTAL

LOCATIONS: • SEATTLE (206) 433-3466

USED TRUCKS

• TACOMA (253) 272-8401 • YAKIMA (509) 452-5515 • OTHELLO (509) 232-4360 • SPOKANE (509) 928-6300

PARTS & SERVICE VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT WWW.RWCGROUP.COM www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

By the 4th century A.D., Rome had 11 public baths, 1352 public fountains and cisterns and 856 private baths. In Pompeii, some homes had 30 taps. Their system at its peak carried 300 gallons of water every day for every citizen. In Great Britain, following Roman custom, Emperor Claudius developed the hot springs near the city of Bath, England and the Romans maintained control of this site for about 500 years. However, when the Romans left, the secrets of sanitary design went with them. The early Christians rejected almost everything Roman including washing. They considered it “unsanitary to be clean” with Saint Benedict pronouncing that “to those that are well, and especially the young, bathing shall not be permitted.” A 4th Century pilgrim to Jerusalem would brag that she had not washed her face for 18 years so as to “not disturb the holy water” used at her baptism. This lack of sanitary conditions on many levels was one of the reasons for the Black Plague which enveloped Europe during the Dark Ages. The idea of the possibility of disease being transmitted through water and waste began to sink in during the 17th and 18th Centuries. However, prior to this idea coming to light, the rivers were treated as open sewers. For example, in the mid-1800’s, the Thames River in England was used to collect both personal and factory waste from nearly 3 million people who were living in London at that time. During several hot summer days during 1859, Parliament was suspended as window blinds saturated with lime

chloride and other disinfectants failed to subdue the odor. The invention of the water closet and the advent of indoor plumbing are both relatively recent innovations. These items represented watershed moments for the human race seeking to secure a more sanitary environment. In the late 1800’s the trade of plumbing began to take hold as more and more homes strived to have authorities beginning to recognize a connection between sanitation and the health of the community. People also began to recognize the need for access to clean fresh water. In Washington State the populace is blessed with many natural resources and the top amongst them are the fresh water rivers which provide drinking water for almost 6 million people. The City of Seattle, as an example, has some of the finest drinking water in the country because the Cedar River watershed and the Tolt River watershed were secured early in the 1900’s as sources for a growing region. And Plumbers are entirely responsible for getting the water where it is found and delivering it to the citizens. They are also responsible for what happens to the water when you are done using it and seeing to it that it is clean enough to re-enter the environment in a safe manner. Today, plumbers are also integrally involved in piping systems that sustain patients in medical facilities, feed people in food processing facilities, and provide lifesaving drugs in pharmaceutical manufacturing and many other facets which we take for granted in our daily lives.

WE’RE ON YOUR TEAM. When you work with Star Rentals, you add powerful players to your project team—pros that are skilled, knowledgeable, and easy to work with. Star Rentals employees are the most experienced in the industry. From our extensive training and safety programs to our equipment expertise, you can count on us to deliver the goods. We make sure you get fast, responsive service, and headache-free billing. Do we think it’s important to be a team player? Absolutely.

100 YEARS OF OUTSTANDING SERVICE. Star Rentals is the oldest, largest and most reliable independent rental company in the Pacific Northwest.

Ray Slyfield Heavy Equipment Service Manager 20 years experience Auburn • Bellevue • Bremerton • Eugene • Everett • Hillsboro • Longview • Olympia • Pasco • Portland • Salem • Seattle • Spokane • Tacoma • Vancouver • Wenatchee • Yakima

www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

Chef a

“staple”

By Alan Berner The Seattle Times

in Macy’s Kitchen

ith impish delight, Toni Keene, executive chef at Macy’s, scoops out what will total about 800 Frango chocolate-chip cookies she’s baking in her kitchen on the sixth floor of the downtown store. The aroma brings in a steady flow of people to sample the treats. On certain days, the aroma can stretch five floors down to the fragrance counters. When that happens, even the Lancôme ladies at the downtown Macy’s store can’t keep themselves off the escalator to see what Toni Keene has come up with in the sixth-floor Home department. It was Frango Friday, so that meant everything would be made with the store’s signature confection. Pies, nut-cheese balls and cookies: some 820 of them, made with eight pounds of Frangos and combined in an industrial mixer. “Remember, Christmas isn’t Christmas without Frangos,” Keene told the crowd. All they could do was nod and chew. Anyone who has ever bought even a spatula here knows Toni Keene. She’s the short-haired lady in the black chef’s jacket with the everything-is-going-to-work-out tone that will embolden the most cowardly cook. She cuts, she chops, and she bakes and demonstrates. She’ll steer you away from the pots that will ruin your glass-top stove, and if you don’t have a Kitchen Aid mixer, well, you need one. For 20 years, Keene, 65, has made this corner of the corporate retail giant a place where the Christmas spirit lives, creating good smells, sound advice, a cup of coffee and a warm cookie before you shop some more. And take a recipe, too. Save yourself some time. “I want people to feel better,” Keene said the other day. “And right now, I think everybody is going through some difficulty. If I can put a smile on people’s faces, then I go home knowing my job is done.” Store manager Rob Nickel called Keene “a staple.” When the Bon Marché was taken over by Macy’s a few years ago, much changed — but Keene stayed. She tests new products, teaches cooking classes and makes recommendations for every kind of cookware. Keene is right there when customers come off the sky bridge, her voice sharing the speakers with Dean Martin and Rosemary Clooney Christmas tunes. “I have some people who come in every day,” Keene said. “I love it. I get to talk with customers and have a good time. Where else can you play, and they pay you?” Keene was working at Larry’s Market as a chef before she was asked to become Bon Marché’s gourmet chef in 1989. Before that, she made wedding cakes, worked in a dental office, did commercial art for an advertising agency and even delivered milk door to door. If she needs cookware, she heads out onto the floor but doesn’t take advantage of the fact that the Home Department is her oyster. “I only take it if I know that I can sell it,” she said. When her equipment needs to be updated, she sells her old stuff to employees at a private, backroom sale, and donates the proceeds to a food bank. On the front of her counter, she keeps copies of 16 recipes

for everything from pumpkin muffins to clam cakes — all with “Enjoy! Toni,” printed on the bottom. Macy’s has published six, 48-page recipe booklets bearing Keene’s image and expertise. “They put out 3,000 on the first whack, and those didn’t last a month,” she said. Pat Payne, 66, worked in intimate apparel for years before moving upstairs to help Keene and ring up sales at the registers behind her. “When you get somebody in the right bra, it’s an ego boost,” Payne told me. “But I like it better up here.” As noon approached, the smell of Frango cookies had spread, literally, to China. “It’s kinda like the cat and the can opener,” Keene said with a smile. One man walked up, looking a little confused. “I was brought over here by the smell,” he said. “I was gone!” A crowd of people hovered around the counter like skiers around a fireplace, sipping peppermint coffee and watching closely while Keene moved warm cookies from the sheet to a plate. “We all know her,” said customer Gloria Baldwin, 62, of West Seattle, who worked in the tea room at Frederick & Nelson some 35 years ago. “She’s a legend,” said John O’Connor, 58, another customer. “It wouldn’t be the same if you came in and Toni wasn’t here.” All the while, she chatted away, a little dish with the dish. Did you know if you wash your garlicky fingers while also washing a spoon, the smell would disappear? (“It just works,” Keene shrugged.) Some people slipped to the front, paid for a cookie with a slightly embarrassed smile, and moved on — but not before tossing a “Thanks, Toni!” over their shoulders. “You’re welcome!” Keene called, and then leaned over to pull another pan out of the oven. Frango Pie 1 Box- Any Flavor Frangos 12 Large Marshmallows ¼ Cup of Milk 1 Pint Whipping Cream 1 Prepared Cookie Crust* Melt first 3 ingredients over double boiler. Add vanilla and mix well. Cool to room temperature. Whip cream and fold in chocolate mixture. Pour into prepared crust and chill. *ALWAYS use a Cookie Crust ( Nabisco , Keebler, Kroger ) Chilled- It’s a Mousse Pie Frozen- It’s a Frango Ice Cream Pie (freezes up to 3 months) www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

PriCor Technologies LLC

Sewer t Water t Drainage t Excavation

Office: (206) 258-5270 Fax: (206) 575-7974 Email: dispatch@pricortech.com PriCor Technologies is built around helping plumbers and underground contactors grow their businesses by adding capacity to their current service offering. We invite you to utilize our personnel and equipment as if they were an extension of your own company. We will provide you with the ability to offer more services to your customers without the need to purchase more equipment and hire more employees. When you need us, call us, and we will be there to help.

combining capacity with ability and agility Safety First! • We hire only trained, professional equipment operators, laborers and dump truck drivers • All of our employees have received competent person training • We have weekly safety meetings • Our employees are required to wear personal protective equipment on every excavation site • Trench shoring is always used when required

Add capacity to your business: • Camera Inspection • Hydro Jetting • Spot Repair/Cleanout Install • Pipe Bursting • 2 Cure in place pipe installation crews • Right of Way excavation incuding street excavation • Concrete and asphalt restoration both private and Right of Way • 24/7 Emergency service including all major holidays • Highly technical with unique problem solving capabilities

We are NOT in business to compete with you! • We do not market our services to the residential market • You will not find us advertising on television, radio, print or online • We work exclusively business to business • All of our business comes through forming partnerships with plumbers and other underground contractors

Maximize your marketing dollars and add to your bottom line • We help you extend your service offerings beyond typical plumbing services • All of our efforts revolve around making sure you capture and retain every call that comes to you: Never say “No” to a call • You will not need to buy equipment or hire more employees to grow your business • We assume all of the risk for the work we do for you

Side Sewer • Excavation • Trenchless Technologies PRICOTL865KZ

www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

PHCC Active Members are Key To Our Success!

By Larry Fischer – Prima Plumbing

embership is so vital to our state and especially right down to the local level. This organization is such a tremendous vehicle for all contractors with those really involved gaining the most from their membership. Committee members Jim Walton, Wiley Cortez and Larry Fischer along with Greta Flinn facilitating the process have been meeting regularly this year. The committee has been having some success reaching new contractors and also past members not active in recent years. Also, we were reaching out to those members who have paid for the annual membership but seldom attend meetings, functions and events. In our meetings, information such as network meeting topics, marketing of PHCC, education possibilities and more are discussed. As we build up a contractor base in South Snohomish County and North King County along with South King County and

North Pierce County, the possibility of holding meetings in the respective locales becomes more relevant. We will meet with potential members in our area to show and explain benefits, opportunities and reasons to join and be active in the association. Travel to national and international venues is often available and it has been used to the educational benefit of the company owners and employees. The PHCC active members are a key to success of this endeavor by inviting, picking up and bringing potential contractor members to meetings, events and functions. If each of our existing members brought in even one new member, we could double our membership and wouldn’t that be an exciting time for us! Membership questions and suggestions can be directed to the membership committee through our executive director, Greta Flinn.

www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015

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chchydronics.com www.phccwa.org • PHCC of Washington News • Spring 2015