Rick Howland takes a bow
To TCIA and its members: After a 56-year career as a journalist, ranging from crime reporter to magazine owner/publisher to running my own pr/advertising agency, and including 28 years writing for TCI Magazine, with my May 2022 TCI article I’m calling it a career – I’m retired.
I thank you for the opportunity to write every month (with the exception of fewer than five), a total of some 330 feature articles.
Thanks to Mark Garvin, former TCIA president and CEO, who, as editor in 1999, called with an emergency first assignment. We made a verbal agreement that lasted month to month for more than two decades. A special thanks to Don Staruk, our current editor, who backed me up through brain-tumor and knee-replacement surgeries, a heart-valve replacement and loss of a spouse. Thanks to him, we never missed a beat.
For me, from safety to profitability, the mission always was about supporting the members. Putting aside some moments of deadline-imposed stress, it was always a pleasure and an honor to be your “associate.”
Go easy.
Rick Howland
Ghent, New York
Editor’s note: Rick will be greatly missed as a dependable, solid, regular contributor for TCI Magazine, and also a friend.
Call back…
Misleading caption
In the April issue of TCI Magazine, the caption for the top photo on page 38, accompanying the article, “What PPE Must an Employer Provide?” contained misleading information. The caption should have read, “The fall protection the climber on the left is wearing is a climbing saddle with an attached upper-body harness; the lift operator on the right has a full-body harness. Both are compliant for their respective applications.”
Also, it should be noted that not all attachable upper-body harnesses designed to be used with climbing saddles are compliant as fall protection for use with aerial lifts. Some are designed just for increased climber comfort.
We’re sincerely grateful to Andrew Tomaskovic, BCMA, CTSP, SPRAT level 1 rope access technician and operator of Andrew the Arborist, LLC, a TCIA member company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for pointing this error out to us via social media (@doublemintmaple).
