A Czech news crew was robbed of its camera equipment in during the APEC conference in San Francisco. ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images

San Francisco’s push to use a major international conference to reverse its image as a city in decline is getting off to a rocky start.  

A Czech journalist and his camera crew were robbed at gunpoint Sunday evening by three armed assailants, according to a statement from the San Francisco police. The incident occurred in the North Beach neighborhood, about two miles from the city’s downtown, where world leaders are meeting for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. 

“The suspects demanded their production equipment and the victims complied,” the police said. “The suspects then entered their vehicle and fled from the scene.” 

North Beach is a busy tourist area known for its Italian restaurants and City Lights, a landmark bookstore made famous by beatnik poets such as Allen Ginsberg. The San Francisco Chronicle, which earlier reported the robbery, said Czech TV journalist Bohumil Vostal was filming the bookshop at dusk to capture the city’s beauty. 

The camera equipment was valued at $18,000 and San Francisco Mayor London Breed has promised the city will help replace it, according to the newspaper. 

The incident occurred as San Francisco hosts legions of international delegates, world leaders and journalists for the APEC event. While most of the attention is focused on a planned meeting between President Joe Biden and President Xi Jinping of China, San Francisco is hoping to use its moment on the world stage to encourage tourism and pitch itself as a thriving hub of innovation. 

Municipal workers have been been power-washing sidewalks, moving homeless people, and sprucing up buildings in its downtown core, all in hopes that visitors will see a positive side of the city. 

San Francisco has notoriously high property crime rates, and local television crews have been known to travel with armed guards. However, homicide rates are below those of cities such as Austin, Miami and Washington, DC, according to federal and local data.

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Nine years after dancing for fun with middle school friends, Eric Payan is still playing around.

But he’s far beyond busting sick moves at Literacy First Charter School in El Cajon.

Starting Tuesday night, Payan leads his five-member Fuego Dance Crew on NBC’s “World of Dance.” (It later moves to Sundays.)

Fuego Dance Crew (from left) Lewis Torres, Eric Payan, Andretty Lucatero, Paul Lopez and Shawn Jones Nguyen. Photo by Chris Stone

The reality show judged by executive producer Jennifer “J.Lo” Lopez and fellow dancers Derek Hough and Ne-Yo (with host Scott Evans) has a cool top prize: $1 million.

Payan’s San Diego-based hip-hop unit was one of 16 chosen from around the world to compete in the Upper Team division (18-and-older) of Season 3 at Universal Studios in the L.A. suburb of Universal City. (Other crews come from South Korea, India, Norway and France.)

If Fuego wins the division, which also includes groups from Arizona, Florida, San Mateo and L.A., it competes against the best urban dance crews in three other categories.

Fuego — Spanish for “fire” but also meaning “cool” and “sexy” — has competed on the older “World of Dance” circuit for several years. The crew is known for its hundreds of videos, many on YouTube, with original music and themes such as football and video games.

They’ve toured dozens of area high schools and Payan even dances in an upcoming movie: “Simple Twist.”

“Now the main goal is to make the music move us,” Payan said before practice Wednesday at a Rolando apartment gym. “We literally make our own style — dance in ways that you can’t expect us to dance.”

Like recess at Literacy First, “we go in the studio with a mind-set of: Let’s just create and have a good time and see what we can get out of ourselves.”

Fuego’s 3- to 5-minute sets on the World of Dance tour include styles from popping and locking to robotic moves, krump and flips. But on TV, they’ll be limited to 90-second routines.

“There’s always ways to improve,” Payan said. “So even if we’re really, really, really solid to the regular human eye. … till the day of [competition], we’re making stuff better, perfecting everything.”

That means practicing four or five times a week, often after 9 p.m. because of work obligations. Fuego has about 15 dancers overall — including some in Mexico — but its top five will carry the brand on NBC (9 p.m.).

Payan says Fuego tried out for Season 2 of “World of Dance” but “kind of bombed” in the tryout.

But last July — after finding an invitation routed to his junk mail — Fuego went to a Season 3 tryout in the Burbank area, where producers said: “We love you guys — you’re going to the next stage.”

That led to an August and September of “talking and paperwork” and “a lot of phone calls,” and help from some parents on legal matters (since they have no formal manager).

Ranging in age from 18 to 23, the group poised for national fame Tuesday includes Paul Lopez, Andretty Lucatero, Lewis Torres and Shawn Jones Nguyen. (All are single except Lucatero.)

And all are mainly self-taught except Jones Nguyen, trained in ballet, jazz and modern dance at the School of Creative and Performing Arts in San Diego. He earlier attended the Creative, Performing and Media Arts Middle School in Clairemont.

The crew’s name originally had a religious bent: “Fire for God.” But Fuego — coined by Payan pal Richard Mendoza — “kind of stuck and it’s a catchy name — one word.” Fans would say of a routine: “That was fire, that was heat.”

Fuego has performed at more than 40 high schools, where girls started saying: “We have the Fuego fever.” Some began calling the crew a boy band — which even led to a formal offer that they be turned into a musical group.

Fuego turned it down.

“We didn’t come into this crew with any set style. We kind of watched people — and got to the point where we stopped watching everybody and just focused on ourselves,” Payan says.

In 2017, Fuego took third place in World of Dance San Diego, trailing much larger dance groups.

At first, the San Diegans were angered by some judge’s scores.

“Over time, we realized that everyone has their own opinion, and it’s a lot of politics involved, too,” said one member. “Sometimes we actually do screw up on stage. Sometimes we aren’t as clean.”

Fuego once found it a challenge to beat the big groups.

Story continues below

Eric Payan of Fuego Dance Crew says: “It’s all a mental game. If you’re not there 100 percent with your passion, you’re not going to do your best.” Photo by Chris Stone

Andretty Lucatero strikes a push-up pose while practicing on a rainy Wednesday night at a Rolando apartment complex gym. Photo by Chris Stone

Andretty Lucatero says he expects to stay with Fuego Dance Crew at least five or six more years. Photo by Chris Stone

Fuego’s Eric Payan says: “Every second has to be effective, and in the process of creating the routine we had to make it (over) 2, 3, 4, 5 times and create some new stuff.” Photo by Chris Stone

Shawn Nguyen says Fuego gets together with other crews to have a freestyle session. “And we do that so we can all become better as freestylers. … and expand our horizons.” Photo by Chris Stone

Fuego Dance Crew practices four or five times a week at a variety of San Diego locations. Photo by Chris Stone

“But then over the years we figured out how to just do our thing better than what they do. And now we compete with them and take on all of them,” the crew says.

Their advantage: “Pretty much everything you see in a performance is exclusively ours. No one has that exact mix. The moves are created toward the music.”

Payan says Fuego spends most of its time making sure that “every single part of the routine … goes to the music exactly 100 percent. If it’s off, or doesn’t agree with the song, we’ll … go back and fix it.”

Fuego members say they’ve been inspired by dance stars from Michael Jackson to the current crew JabbaWockeeZ. Photo by Chris Stone

They don’t have a coach, so they assure synchronization several ways. They watch tapes of their rehearsals, have one member dancing for the other four, or let one member critique how the other four perform a routine.

Ideas for moves also come from other San Diego dance crews — Payan takes his troupe to locations where freestyle dancers show off.

But Payan is the main choreographer, with others chipping in ideas. It’s “all from our own heads” since middle school, he said. “I’ll literally mix stuff together.”

Even without a dance studio to call its own, Fuego has evolved into a tightknit family, which expects to stay together for years.

Their newest star, Jones Nguyen, “came out of nowhere,” Payan said.

While observing Fuego at the Rolando gym, Jones Nguyen said: “‘Hey, I want to freestyle.’ And we said: ‘Yeah, cool. Do your thing.’ And he was pretty good. He was younger, but he was quicker than some of my other guys,” Payan said.

At the July tryout, “we were all sweating superhard,” he said. “We really killed the tryout. That’s when I realized — yeah, this five can make it work.”

Fuego is forbidden from saying how they did on the show, taping for several months. But Payan says the advantage his crew has over others is its “creativity and cleanliness” — coordination.

“We also want to get to the point where we can expand our horizon and do crazy flips and stuff,” he said. “There are routines we see people just have tricks, tricks, tricks. And it’s really strong. But after a while you kind of [get] lost in that.”

Payan’s longterm dream is turning Fuego into what he calls the first multigenerational dance crew — with spinoff groups such as Fuego Dance Crew Canada and Fuego Dance Crew Peru.

If Fuego keeps the attitude that “what we’re doing is bigger than our problems,” he said, “I think we’ll go further than we ever thought. I think it’ll go for a long time.”

Eric Payan: “We didn’t come into this crew with any set style. We kind of watched people — and got to the point where we stopped watching everybody and just focused on ourselves. That’s when we started developing our own style.” Photo by Chris Stone

Born in: San Diego
Joined crew in: 2010
Graduated: West Hills High School (Santee) in 2015
Lives in: Santee
Recent jobs: Dance studio teacher, chimney sweep, Uber driver
Nickname: Phaze

Paul Lopez in high school was a pitcher, running back, cornerback and wrestler. Photo by Chris Stone

Born in: *San Diego
Joined crew in: 2012
Graduated: Chula Vista High School in 2016
Lives in: Chula Vista
Recent job: Dance studio teacher

Andretty Lucatero says leader Eric Payan has “been pushing us really hard lately. Taking the crew in a good direction.” Photo by Chris Stone

Born in: *San Diego
Joined crew in: 2015
Graduated: Grossmont High School (El Cajon) in 2015
Lives in: El Cajon
Recent job: Sushi chef
Nickname: Dreads

Lewis Torres says: “If everyone is of the same mind-set … we’ll stay together a good 5-10 years.” Photo by Chris Stone

Born in: Chula Vista
Joined crew in: 2017
Graduated: El Capitan High School (Lakeside) in 2013
Lives in: Murrieta, Riverside County
Nickname: Legacy

Shawn Jones Nguyen, who graduates from high school this spring, says: “Dancing uses a lot of your muscles, a lot of brain power.” Photo by Chris Stone

Born in: San Diego
Joined crew in: 2018
Graduating: School of Creative and Performing Arts (San Diego) in 2019
Lives in: Poway
Nickname: Shong

Updated at 2 p.m. Feb. 23, 2019

*Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported place of birth.

The post Meet Fuego Dance Crew — San Diego’s Hip-Hop Hope for NBC’s ‘World of Dance’ appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

I love to read books located in cities I am about to visit. But when it comes to San Francisco and the Bay Area, I was really impressed with the wealth of choices available.

My colleague Walter Thompson confirmed this:

“I’ve lived in San Francisco for most of my adult life, and while I don’t have supporting data, I believe this city is overrepresented in literature: the number of songs, novels, TV shows and films set here simply staggers the imagination.”

I picked up one as I started preparing for my week in San Francisco for Disrupt, and figured my colleagues had their own recs to share. Below is a list of books we love and that we hope you’ll enjoy, too.

Although we managed to select two books by the same author, our picks are very diverse, from historical novels and nonfiction to sci-fi. But they all have one thing in common: They have some connection to San Francisco and the Bay Area. That’s a great common thread: As Walter noted, San Francisco is in a constant state of reinvention.

Book recommendation: “Tales of the City,” by Armistead Maupin

Who picked it: Karyne Levy, managing editor TC+

What started as regular installments in the San Francisco Chronicle turned into a cultural phenomenon, spanning nine books and three decades. It follows the lives and loves of a group of unforgettable characters who live at 28 Barbary Lane, under the watchful eye — and genuine warmth — of their loving landlord, Anna Madrigal. And a note for those curious: That address doesn’t exist, but the area it’s based on is known as Russian Hill (Macondray Lane, to be exact)!

Maupin does a tremendous job capturing the city and its vibes from the late 1970s through the mid-2000s, using storylines that include true events (Jim Jones, the AIDS epidemic) and a cast of characters you’ll love immediately. In fact, I’m going to reread my collection starting tonight!

Book recommendation: “1906: A Novel,” by James Dalessandro

Who picked it: Walter Thompson, editorial manager, head of guest contributor program

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HAMTRAMCK, MI — The scene at Hamtramck Stadium was a mess. Only a few short years ago, the old playing surface was covered with tall grass and tangling weeds. There were worn-down patches in the outfield, where local children played soccer. There was a concrete strip where they played cricket. The front of the dilapidated grandstand was covered with trees and twisting roots. There were no dugouts, no dirted infield, no fence, no baselines.

There was almost no reminder of what this place once was, and of why it matters today, as one of a handful of Negro League ballparks still in existence.

It’s hard to believe how far it has come since that time. Hamtramck Stadium has now been revived. A couple of summers ago, they had the infield laser-graded, laid Kentucky Bluegrass sod and poured DuraEdge sand mix on the ground. They dedicated the field and named it after Negro Leagues legend Turkey Stearnes. The people who did much of this, who helped transform a forgotten ballpark into a gem restored, are all volunteers.

On a recent Monday morning, a mower hums in the outfield, shoes scrape across the gravel by the dugouts, and the Hamtramck Stadium Grounds Crew is at work once again.

“Without them, there is no Hamtramck Stadium,” said Mike Wilson, president of the stadium’s board.

The Grounds Crew has four main members — Tom Derry, brothers Roy and Kirk Jeffery and Dan Theriault. The men mow the field, tend to the dirt and do a wide range of other projects. They devote their springs and summers to this ballpark, a place that hosted 13 tournaments and a jumble of other events this past year.

“Just look at this,” Wilson says.

At home plate, there is a dark blue tarp with a logo representing Hamtramck Stadium printed in the middle. It is sleek and professional, but since the Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium purchased the tarp in 2020, cleats have torn a few small holes in the tarp. Members of the Hamtramck Stadium Grounds Crew went on their own to buy and install patches.

“So many little things these guys do over and above the call of duty, out of their own coffers or pockets,” Wilson said. “These guys are phenomenal, man.”

Hamtramck Stadium in 2019 (Allison Farrand / The Athletic)

The work at Hamtramck Stadium has helped patch a hole in Detroit’s baseball history. Hamtramck is an enclave of Detroit, located about five miles north of the city’s downtown. Thanks to a community effort spearheaded by baseball historian Gary Gillette, the place where Negro League icons such as Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige and Stearnes played escaped the threat of destruction and now hosts baseball again.

The sweat equity that goes into making it happen involves early mornings, 600-foot firehoses, broken-down lawnmowers and more man hours than you can count.

Why do these people do it?

Grounds crew members offered a few theories.

“I guess when you see it like this,” Roy Jeffery said one Monday morning, looking out at the field, “it makes it all worth it.”

“We get a lot of praise from the coaches and teams that are playing,” Kirk Jeffery said.

“There’s more to it than that, I think,” Theriault said. “We probably think of it as our responsibility.”

Working in the outfield. (Courtesy of Hamtramck Stadium Grounds Crew)

The origins of the Grounds Crew stem from a game of catch.

It was 2010, and legendary Detroit Tigers broadcaster Ernie Harwell had just died. Derry watched on the news as longtime fans drove to the old site of Tiger Stadium, right there off Michigan and Trumbull. People brought ballgloves and played catch on the hallowed grounds where Harwell called games for most of his career.

“I didn’t know there was access to it,” Derry said. “I thought it was all blocked off. The last part of the structure had been torn down the previous fall. When I saw people were playing catch there I thought, ‘Well, cool, I want to go play catch there.’”

Derry called a few friends, and they trekked to the empty lot. There they played catch and reminisced. But the only remnant of the old park was the flag pole that once stood in the outfield. The lot itself was in disrepair. There were weeds 6 feet tall or higher all over.

“I couldn’t believe how tall the grass was,” Derry said. “No one was taking care of it, garbage everywhere.”

An idea crept into his head.

“I got a riding mower,” Derry said. “I can cut the grass, and I know my friends will want to help. It just started like that. We didn’t know if we’d be there for a week, a month. We stayed for six years.”

The Navin Field Grounds Crew — so called in homage to Tiger Stadium’s original name — began tending to grounds at the corner of Michigan and Trumbull. Derry rented a brush hog for 10 consecutive weekends to clear the initial undergrowth. Derry called friends including Roy Jeffery. Theriault, an old friend who lived in Washington but often spent summers back home, came out and helped, too. Many more Grounds Crew members came and went. The group became something like cult heroes in Detroit, locals working to preserve history.

Soon word spread, and the site of the old Tiger Stadium became a destination once more. People flocked to visit. They hosted vintage baseball games. Fathers and sons played catch. Couples got married. Some covered the ground with their loved ones’ ashes.

The Grounds Crew cared for the site as city politics played out in the backdrop. After stops and starts and disagreements, the Tiger Stadium site eventually became home to the Detroit Police Athletic League. Detroit PAL erected a ballpark for youth sports and — to the chagrin of some — covered it with artificial turf.

But that was hardly the end of the Grounds Crew.

Caring for the infield. (Courtesy of Hamtramck Stadium Grounds Crew)

While one piece of history was demolished and eventually replaced, another was being rediscovered and revitalized.

Back before the Grounds Crew started caring for the field at Hamtramck Stadium, its members had no idea the site existed.

“I didn’t even know it was here,” Kirk Jeffery said.

Beneath all the weeds, history was buried in a shallow grave. Hamtramck Stadium held its opening ceremony on May 11, 1930. Detroit Tigers star Ty Cobb came to throw out the first pitch, and 9,000 people attended the first ballgame. The Detroit News waxed poetically about the ballpark, writing it was “new, substantial and pretentious,” calling it superior to Bennett Park, the first home of the Detroit Tigers.

Back then, fans would arrive straight from church, still in their Sunday best, and watch the Detroit Stars play at the impressive structure. In that first season, the Stars lost the deciding game of the 1930 Negro National League Championship Series to the St. Louis Stars. The Detroit Wolves of the East-West League played there in 1932, and new incarnations of the Stars called the park home in 1933, 1937 and as late as 1954. Even in 1959, the Hamtramck team that won the Little League World Series played its home games at the park. In all, 18 Hall of Famers — including Stearnes, Gibson, Paige and Cool Papa Bell — are thought to have played or managed at Hamtramck Stadium.

The ballpark is one of precious few such sites left. Gillette, the historian, views a true Negro League Park as a venue that served as the home field for a major Negro League team between 1920 and 1950. And by that definition, there are only five of these cathedrals left —Hamtramck Stadium; Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala.; League Park in Cleveland, Hinchcliffe Stadium in New Jersey and Red Cap Field in Jacksonville, Fla.

“It’s cool to take care of the field where Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth played,” Derry said of the Grounds Crews’ days at Navin Field. “But to be able to take care of the field for the men who weren’t allowed to play over there is probably much more important.”

Theriault and the Jeffery brothers grew up in the same Detroit neighborhood and were high-school classmates. They remember playing football across the street at Keyworth Stadium. But for decades, the old rickety grandstand off in the distance received little attention. It was not until the grandstand was at risk of being torn down that Gillette and a group of other concerned citizens stepped in. They provided photos and newspaper articles and proved the overrun site was once home to the Detroit Stars. This, they said, was not something that should be torn down. Rather, it was an absolute gem.

Dave Mesrey, at the time an active Grounds Crew member, mentioned to Gillette that the group might be interested in helping. People had become familiar with the work at Michigan and Trumbull, so the Grounds Crew took on a new life.

At first, the work was simple. Derry would take his mower out to the field, start near the bump in the center and work outward, mowing the site as often as needed, depending on the time of year.

The Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium kept pushing. They raised awareness to save the site; the park was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2012 and received a state historic marker in 2014. Then they raised money to help restore it. The efforts recently earned the group the Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation from the state of Michigan.

In 2020, when money came in to lay sod and create a high-level playing field, the work for the Grounds Crew increased.

“It was something to do,” Roy Jeffery said. “A day here, a day there, and it turned into a little more than we imagined.”

Kirk Jeffery was retired, and his wife had recently died. He was looking for a way to fill the time when his brother called and asked if he wanted to help with the project.

“I said, ‘Yeah, sounds good,’” Kirk said. “I’ve been here ever since.”

Theriault moved back to Michigan full-time and joined in on the effort.

“It was something that needed doing,” he said. “Nobody else was going to do it.”

In the years since, the transformation has been astonishing. Once an abandoned lot, the site now has a beautiful infield. Grounds Crew members have done this without any formal landscaping background. Roy worked as an electrical contractor and Kirk worked in HVAC. Theriault served in the Navy, and Derry was a mail carrier.

Armed with cell phones and guidance from a few local experts, the retired men have slowly taught themselves how to care for a baseball field.

“Thank God for Google,” Kirk Jeffery said. “And when we go to a ballgame, we’re there to watch the grounds crew.”

As the Hamtramck Stadium project roared to life, the work expanded beyond caring for grass and dirt. They cleared the trees in front of the grandstand. They erected the dugouts by hand.

Not long ago, they spent hours atop a six-foot ladder, setting up a yellow fence topper that adds color to the outfield. Back before fire hydrants were installed at the site, they had to snake a 600-foot firehose through the grandstand and onto the field to water the grass.

“We don’t just hit a switch and watch the sprinklers come on,” Derry said.

They’d often stay from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., just getting the grass watered. Sometimes when they watch professional groundscrews at work, they chuckle at all the people holding one water hose.

In the outfield, they use a solar-powered water reel. It takes about four hours to do the job.

“You have to stay and watch it,” Roy Jeffery said. “You can’t just leave. If something goes wrong with it, the whole place is flooded.”

The Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium board does provide the Grounds Crew with a $550 monthly stipend for gas money, equipment maintenance and other expenses. But the labor is all pro bono.

How much time have they invested, in all?

“I’d be a millionaire,” Theriault said.

These days, the stadium is home to Hamtramck High School’s baseball team. The site hosted numerous travel-ball tournaments this summer. It has also hosted youth clinics and a small concert and is set for local collegiate games in the fall. The men are virtually always tending to the field or otherwise on call.

Over the past two years, Gillette said he has had at least a dozen people approach him. They’ll name a nearby minor-league field and say Hamtramck Stadium looks better. They’ll name a college field and say the same thing.

“I used to look at them skeptically, like, ‘You’re just being nice,’” Gillette said. “They’d tell me, ‘No, it’s true.’ And that’s a real tribute to the Grounds Crew.”

Hamtramck at night. (Courtesy of Hamtramck Stadium Grounds Crew)

In 2024, the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants will play a game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala. Rickwood was once home to the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues and has hosted one minor-league game every season since 1996.

MLB is in the midst of efforts to better commemorate the legacy of the Negro Leagues. The league is also hosting yearly “specialty” games, including the two previous Field of Dreams games in Dyersville, Iowa.

The game at Rickwood Field is scheduled for June 20, 2024, to coincide with Juneteenth and celebrate the history of the Negro Leagues.

The news has people involved with Hamtramck Stadium wondering: Could their ballpark be next?

There are logistical hurdles to climb through. Compared to Rickwood or even the newly renovated Hinchliffe Stadium in New Jersey, Hamtramck Stadium is not as well-equipped with the amenities needed to host a major-league game. At Hamtramck, they are still renovating the locker rooms and plan to add concessions. They hope to soon add lights to the field. They still need plumbing. That’s a lot of work and even more money, and parking is a whole other conversation.

Hosting a minor-league game or Division I college game is likely a more realistic goal for now. But the idea of one day hosting a major-league game lingers in the back of everyone’s mind.

“It could take five or six years,” Derry said. “But I do believe that one day MLB will be here, and it will be one of the biggest things that’s ever happened in Hamtramck. This field is just as worthy of having a major-league game as any other field anywhere.”

One recent weekend, Joyce-Stearnes Thompson — the daughter of Turkey Stearnes, who played at Hamtramck Stadium and hit more home runs than any player in Negro Leagues history — drove down to the stadium for an event. There was rain, hail and lightning that forced people to take cover under the grandstand. But once the storm passed and the sun returned, Stearnes-Thompson looked out at the field. To her, it seemed as though the storm had never hit.

She paused for a moment to appreciate how far the field has come.

“It’s amazing. It’s beautiful,” she said. “It’s such a thrill for us to see that. I just wish my father could be a part of it.”

(Top photo: Courtesy of Hamtramck Stadium Grounds Crew)

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The Rhoads Energy Family of Companies announced the launch of Cool Crew, a new HVAC service group.

The team consists of more than 50 service technicians from Rhoads Energy and its affiliate companies, including Boyertown Oil & Propane, EG Smith Inc., Mack Energy and Reilly & Sons.

The move enables Rhoads, an employee-owned energy and HVAC provider that has served the region for more than 100 years, to centralize operations and expand service options across a large swath of southeastern Pennsylvania.

Cool Crew offers comprehensive HVAC service and installation: all types of heating and cooling systems, indoor air quality equipment, water heaters, and more.

“We have one of the largest, most highly trained teams of HVAC technicians in the entire state, but they were all wearing different uniforms,” ​​said CEO Michael DeBerdine. “By creating Cool Crew, we clarify the scope of our operation and marshal all our resources under a single banner.”

DeBerdine added that creating Cool Crew offers several advantages to homeowners and the community at large.

• Streamlined regional service: More cohesive dispatching from the company’s experienced team will lead to coordinated service and quicker response times. Cool Crew covers a huge footprint spanning six counties, with 24/7 emergency service available.

• Uniform resources for all customers: Cool Crew gives homeowners access to expanded resources, more products and decades of accumulated experience. Cool Crew also gives customers access to better financing and better warranties because of its partnerships with top-tier manufacturers like Lennox and Mitsubishi.

• Expanded mission: Beyond HVAC installation and service, Cool Crew will continue to identify new products and services that offer energy savings, greater efficiency, improved air quality and more.

While Cool Crew offers an upgraded option for thousands of households in the region, Rhoads and its affiliates will maintain the same staff operating in the same local offices. DeBerdine notes that the new HVAC team will continue to be driven by the company’s core values, which is why the company selected Cool Crew’s tagline: Expert Service. Hometown Values.

“Our companies have learned a lot about our customers over the past 100-plus years,” DeBerdine said. “That track record of serving — and giving back to — our community will be a significant part of Cool Crew’s mission.”

For more information, visit www.CoolCrew.com.

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HONOLULU (AP) – A group of athletes rowed a boat from San Francisco to Hawaii in record time.

The four-person crew was part of the Great Pacific Race, a rowing competition in which teams of two and four compete in identical boats on a lonely journey across the open sea.

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The teams live for the duration of the race without direct external support.

Captain Jason Caldwell said he and his three teammates – Duncan Roy, Angus Collings, and Jordan Shuttleworth – rowed in two-person, two-hour shifts – 24 hours a day – throughout the voyage.

“When you’re a team like us looking to win a race or maybe break the world record, you have to keep the boat moving,” said Caldwell. “We did that for 30 days without a break.”

In this Great Pacific Race photo, the Latitude 35 team celebrates as it landed in the Waikiki area of ​​Honolulu after rowing from San Francisco. From left are Jordan Shuttleworth, Angus Collins, Jason Caldwell and Duncan Roy. The team beat the previous race record by more than a week when they covered the 2,400 nautical mile journey in 30 days, 7 hours and 30 minutes. The previous racing record was 39 days, 9 hours and 56 minutes. (Mikey Brown / Hawaii Sports Photography / Great Pacific Race via AP)

Caldwell said the rowing was the easiest part and the two hour breaks in between were the toughest. Then the crew had to find ways to eat, sleep, stay healthy and clean.

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“It’s all about preserving your body,” he said. “You lack sleep, you are malnourished, you are dehydrated. You have wounds all over the place, stress-broken ribs. Everyone has ailing injuries and it just keeps getting worse and worse. You’re basically trying to hold on. Your body tries to hold out until you reach the finish line. “

Caldwell’s Latitude 35 racing team beat the previous racing record by more than a week when it arrived in Waikiki on Wednesday.

The team completed the 2,400 nautical mile journey in 30 days, 7 hours and 30 minutes. The previous racing record in 2016 was 39 days, 9 hours and 56 minutes.

Caldwell holds other rowing records, including crossing the Atlantic.

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“The Pacific is very different from the Atlantic. The Atlantic is very consistent, ”said Caldwell. “But the Pacific just isn’t consistent at all. It’s a lot more brutal. Its heights are much higher. Its lows are much lower. “

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