© 2007 Door & Access Systems
Publish Date: Spring 2007
Author: Tom Wadsworth
Page 79

CLIPPINGS
Garage Doors and Openers in the Media

Ex-Mayor Sued for Non-Payment of Garage Door Repair Ads

Source: Aaron Mackey, “Ex-Marana mayor is sued in $193,600 ad dispute,” Arizona Daily Star (Phoenix, Ariz.), Jan. 18, 2007.

In Jan. 2007, former Marana, Ariz., mayor Bobby Sutton Jr. was sued by his former employer for $193,600 in unpaid advertising bills. (Sutton was the focus of our “Trouble in Tucson” cover story in our winter 2005 issue.) His former employer is Yellow Pages directory publisher Dex Media, where Sutton was an ad sales rep.

This Arizona Daily Star story says Sutton’s garage door repair company didn’t pay Dex Media $193,600 for ads that ran in the Dex’s Yellow Pages directory. The suit also seeks 1.5 percent interest, along with taxes and finance charges.

Editor’s Note: As we reported in 2005, Sutton got into the garage door repair business after being the Yellow Pages ad rep for Peter J. Stephens, a multi-state garage door dealer whose giant Yellow Pages ads have become notorious throughout the country.

Sutton bought out Stephens’ door businesses in Tucson and Salt Lake City in 2004, which operated under several names, including A&A Garage, Discount Garage Door Co., and Tucson’s Choice. Sutton had also started a garage door repair business in Albuquerque and had planned to expand into five more cities in four other states.

Sutton’s case may have some unique qualities, but it seems to warn of the dangers of buying into a garage door repair company that is built on giant (expensive) Yellow Pages ads and charging customers high fees for repair work. The high fees could destroy your reputation and hinder your ability to pay your mammoth Yellow Pages bill.

Red Emergency Handles: for the Birds?

Source: Gary Bogue, “Countless hummers may be helped by simple tip,” Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, Calif.), Jan. 9, 2007.

In this column, a reader offers “a tip to help keep hummingbirds from getting trapped in one’s garage.” The reader suggests using gray duct tape to cover the garage door opener’s red emergency pull-cord handle.

He figures that the birds assume the red handle is a feeder or flower. He then writes, “As many of us know, once a bird is trapped indoors it will instinctively fly up to the ceiling.”

He claims that, since applying his gray duct tape solution, he has never had another trapped bird. He concludes, “I wonder if something this simple could be relayed to manufacturers of all doors to make their release latches in black?”

Gary Bogue, the columnist, responds, “Hummingbirds trapped in garages has been driving me crazy for years. One day I got 10 phone calls from people needing help to get trapped hummers out of their garages!”

He, too, urges homeowners to cover the red handles and closes with, “Hey, garage door manufacturers! Did you read this?”

Editor’s Note: Yeah, we read it, but the red handles will remain red. UL 325 mandates that handle be “red” so that homeowners can quickly find it in an emergency. UL apparently views the lives of humans as more important than the inconvenience of hummingbirds.