Schmidt’s Wholesale’s long-valued employee, Patty Prezioso, recently celebrated her 50th year of employment at the company. She started there in 1958, fresh after her graduation from Delaware Valley Central High School in Callacoon, N.Y.

Martin Flaherty, board member and past president of the Pennsylvania Association of Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors (Pa.-PHCC), spoke on the group’s behalf at a joint public hearing of the House Labor Relations and Professional Licensure Committees on licensure of construction trades and consumer protection.

EMCOR Group announced that its Government Services unit was awarded a contract to provide facilities services at the Hubert H. Humphrey Building in Washington, D.C. The contract is for an initial period of nine months with the option of the U.S. government to extend it for four successive one-year periods.

After four years of successful Subway retailing, Kim Rico had to navigate the sometimes-costly road of refrigeration repair. After two service companies failed to fix a leak, a third company applied a sealant. One year later, the walk-in freezer is still operating at the manufacturer’s original specification pressures.

In a time when the HVAC industry is facing a shortage of skilled workers, Pennsylvania College of Technology (Penn College, a Penn State affiliate) and Johnson Controls are teaming up to attract and groom the next generation of HVAC technicians.

The most striking feature of the new $60 million Flushing Meadows Corona Park Pool & Ice Rink is its 20-foot-high wall of windows that affords a panoramic view of the surrounding New York City urban oasis of natural beauty, but it wouldn’t be possible without the project engineer’s HVAC design.

The Kerner Group was recently recognized as one of the “Fantastic 50” by the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. The award program recognizes the state’s fastest-growing private companies with sales between $200,000 and $100 million.

Members of the New Jersey Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association recently were involved in a “Homes for Our Troops” project to build a specially adapted home for a severely injured war veteran and his family. Chapter members donated key supplies and financing needed to complete the home.

Carrier Corp.’s Residential and Light Commercial Systems business honored longtime leaders in the HVAC industry with its Dealer Hall of Fame Award. Honorees included Mitchell Cropp of Cropp-Metcalfe, Fairfax, Va.

The Refrigeration Service Engineers Society (RSES) announced the names of several Eastern region members who were awarded RSES Certificate Member (CM) and Certificate Member Specialist (CMS) status in April 2008.