Halfway between the city of San Francisco and Monterey lies the Santa Cruz Harbor, a little piece of paradise carved out of beautiful Woods Lagoon.
Halfway between the city of San Francisco and Monterey lies the Santa Cruz Harbor, a little piece of paradise carved out of beautiful Woods Lagoon. Home to more than 1,000 recreational sailing craft and a bustling commercial fishing complex, the harbor rests behind two popular beaches, Twin Lakes State Beach and Starlight Beach. Every year, hundreds of thousands of visitors enjoy the best of the ocean-side lifestyle, complete with spectacular Wednesday night sailboat races and Thursday night beach barbeques. And, during the summer salmon and tuna seasons, as many as 15,000 sport fishermen cast off from the harbor’s public launch.
Maintaining security at this popular getaway, however, is no day at the beach. Challenges include corrosive salt air and rough winters that can easily destroy delicate equipment; a seasonal workforce that needs to access sensitive areas while on the job, but needs to be kept out during off-hours and the off-season. And, even here in paradise, there are budgets to consider. The harbor’s permanent staff is small in number, and staff members only have so many hours in a day. Quick and easy retrofitting, plus fast and simple access authorization management are critical to keeping the operation efficient and cost-effective.
When Kaba Access Control needed to beta-test the durability of its new E-Plex 5000 electronic lock, Santa Cruz Harbor had the perfect spot. Forty yards from the ocean stands a maintenance shed. The front door faces the water. It’s just the right place to punish any flaws in materials and engineering. Kaba representative Jim Daniels and local locksmith Scot Edelstein, owner of A&A Safe & Lock, hooked up with Tom Slagel, the Harbor’s director of maintenance, to see just how well the E-Plex would perform in this most hostile environment.
With no wiring to run through the door, a simple, two-hole drilling template, super-easy “sandwich” fitting, and a field-reversible lever, installing the lock was a breeze. The real test, however, would be delivered by the elements. Could the E-Plex 5000 stand up to the corrosive effects of foggy summer mornings, winters, and constant exposure to salt air?
“After nine months of testing, the E-Plex 5000 looked brand new and operated flawlessly,” said Kaba representative Daniels. Edelstein confirmed this assessment, “the performance was phenomenal and the satin chrome finish showed no wear.” But the highest praise came from maintenance director Tom Slagel, “the test went so well that we ordered another one just as soon as they started production.”
For Slagel, the durability of the E-Plex 5000 is just one of many important benefits. “From a security perspective, I get a complete audit trail. I know who entered the building and when they entered. If assets go missing, I get a complete list of suspects with a quick download to my PDA (handheld personal digital assistant).”
Quick PDA synchronization combined with easy to use Excel based software also greatly simplifies Slagel’s management tasks. “When a new employee comes on or a seasonal employee leaves, it takes me all of about two seconds to change my access authorizations,” says the maintenance director. “I make the change at my desk, download the file to my PDA, beam the update into the lock, and I’m done. I don’t have to keep track of keys. I don’t have to worry about lost or stolen keys, and I may never have to re-pin another lock. It couldn’t be more convenient.”
According to Daniels, the ability to change authorizations at your desk provides even greater advantages, especially in a place like Santa Cruz. “It doesn’t matter what the weather’s like outside – cold, rainy, or even a heavy winter storm that comes in off of the ocean – you make all the changes from the comfort of your nice warm office, then upload them to each lock in a matter of seconds.
According to Edelstein, “the E-Plex 5000 is so easy to install that a lot of my customers can do the retrofit and all of the programming themselves. I just supply the product. And because of the field reversible lever, I only have to keep half as many locks on hand. No matter if the next installation is in a right-hand or left-hand door, I’ve got it covered with just one lock.”
Product Adopted:Locks