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Era of elevator operators expires in Sioux City

News

July 1st, 2015 by Ric Hanson

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – The era of elevator operators is out in Sioux City as owners of the Insurance Exchange Building install modern elevators. For decades, tenants and visitors to the six-story building would step into the elevator, with operators closing the doors behind them and setting the machine in motion.

The Sioux City Journal reports that Adam Pickhinke and Pamela Cotton were the final two manual elevator operators in the city before the building’s owner closed the elevators on Tuesday. The elevators in the nearly century-old building will be replaced by automatic ones, which are faster, more energy efficient and can carry heavier loads.