14 / THE GOOD LIFE / urba

14 / THE GOOD LIFE / urbantoadmedia.com

“ THANK GOD I’VE NEVER DROPPED ANYTHING. I’VE BEEN FORTUNATE, AND NONE OF OUR GUYS HAVE EVER DROPPED ANYTHING EITHER.” – TODD BREIDENBACH WRITTEN BY: BEN HANSON • PHOTOS BY: URBAN TOAD MEDIA When you get into a conversation with a crane operator — you know, the guys sitting in the cab running the big cranes lifting giant beams, HVAC units or million dollar engines — two questions always pop up: Have you ever dropped anything and how in the world do you go to the bathroom? According to Todd Breidenbach — owner of High Power Crane, a regional crane company named in honor of his faith and jointly operated with his wife out of Sabin, Minn. — it turns out the second question is rather benign for most crane operators. They simply call for a break, climb out and take care of business, as they’re operating mobile, truck-mounted cranes. The tower crane operators, on the other hand, are stuck hundreds of feet up in the air and can’t simply climb out when nature calls. “The crew gets breaks,” Breidenbach explained. “If you gotta stop and take a break you just tell the guys, as there’s usually nothing pressing other than if you’re holding a load in the air or if you’ve got somebody in a man basket that’s suspended, you can’t get out of the cab… you can’t get out of the cab with a suspended load.” As for that first question, you’d think for a guy who’s been lifting unwieldy objects into the air the better part of two decades, Breidenbach would have at least one good story to share about dropping something. Lucky for him and all his clients, no such story exists. “Thank God I’ve never dropped anything,” Breidenbach said with a noticeable sigh of relief. “I’ve been fortunate, and none of our guys have ever dropped anything either.” Fortunate, yes. Lucky, perhaps. But more so, the combined years of experience on Breidenbach’s crew is absolutely the key element to the company’s record of safety and success. Lucky for their customers, though, crane operators are required to carry a special kind of insurance. “Once we have it picked up off the ground [on the end of our hook], basically we own it until we set it back down again,” Breidenbach explained. “Our insurance covers anything you have urbantoadmedia.com / THE GOOD LIFE / 15