He goes to great heights simply to do his job

Dave Price travels the state doing high-altitude tasks no one else wants to do.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- After crawling through a 3-foot-tall door and wrapping a rope around a lamp, Dave Price slowly lowered himself along a series of sloped skylights to the outside ledge of the LeVeque Tower's 39th floor.
There, he took two short, calculated steps to a light fixture and attached himself to it with a clamp.
The cars driving along Broad Street looked like toys.
Despite a wind that seemed to gust a lot stronger than the reported 29 mph, Price reached into a black bag hanging from his harness and pulled out a piece of green theater gel -- think of cellophane -- and a roll of duct tape.
Price is the guy who does something few would ever think of doing: He makes the 64 lights on the historic building change colors about three times a year.
The heat of the bulbs causes the colors to fade, forcing Price to replace them every few weeks. He makes a point of driving by the LeVeque to keep an eye on the color.
Price changed the lights on the 39th and 42nd floors earlier this month.
At this time of year, he doesn't change the light bulbs unless they've burned out. Instead, he covers each lamp with colored sheets that reflect onto the building at night.
Recently, he changed the red, white and blue gels that he put up for Veterans Day to red and green for Christmas season.
Suggested for the job
A little more than five years ago, a building maintenance worker who was tired of climbing onto ledges to change the lights suggested Price, who had been climbing radio towers for a while.
"The building people decided not to do it and they said, 'We know some crazy guy who will,"' he said as the wind whipped through his white hair outside LeVeque.
Then he folded one end of a piece of green theater gel, held it down on one of the square lamps with his chin and affixed it with tape.
To make sure it didn't slip, Price wrapped tape around the top, bottom and both sides. One roll of tape covers about seven lamps.
Price, 55, isn't afraid of the narrow ledge and the 400-foot drop on the other side. And he doesn't fear the climb he makes on radio and TV towers to change light bulbs and antennas.
"Heights don't bother me," he said. "I'm not intimidated by them. I respect them. I climbed trees as a kid. What male kid didn't?"
He charges about $55 an hour to change the lights and usually finishes in a day.
Travels the state
His climbing business began because changing antennas on towers was part of his job with Hall Electronics on the North Side. Price eventually started Dave's Tower Services, and now he travels the state doing the work that makes many people shiver.
The highest he's climbed is a 420-foot TV tower in Jackson County. It took him 42 minutes to go up, five minutes to replace two bulbs and 38 minutes to climb down.
"It was an hour and a half of climbing and five minutes of work," he said.
Shirley Hall, his boss at Hall Electronics, said she is fascinated by Price's climbing stories. His tales include dealing with falcons, high winds and rain.
"It's interesting and scary at the same time," she said.
Price said he takes precautions and always puts safety first. For years, he did it all on his own. Now he has an assistant.
He wears a harness, takes his time and follows a specific system.
"He doesn't do anything fast," Hall said.
But with all his preparation, he doesn't seem concerned about what might be an important item -- his shoes. On the LeVeque, for example, he wore sneakers.
"I don't think about them," he said.
Unmarried
Price has insurance -- a lot of insurance. He has a brother who lives in Florida and no other family to worry about his dangerous job.
While he acknowledges his job isn't conventional, there are some professions that he would never attempt.
"Window washers. That's something I wouldn't do," he said. "I'm sorry, but hanging on a rope on the side of a building? I'd rather hang on an antenna tower."