Orlando to spend over $1 million on elevators for City Hall

The City of Orlando will renovate its four elevators that serve City Hall, for a cost of $1.1 million. Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer says not all of them work all of the time.

"They are basically obsolete. It's hard to get parts to refurbish them. We've had one that's been down probably about a year."

We rode two of the 23-year-old elevators on Monday without incident, but the mayor says he has not been as lucky.

"I myself have been trapped on those elevators three separate times, mostly on Saturdays. So I have had OFD come to respond to get me out of the elevator. So they are very antiquated and it is time to replace them."

The new elevators will be green elevators that actually generate their own power according to Mayor Dyer.

"When these elevators are going down, they actually develop energy, so very highly energy efficient."

The brakes will provide power instead of using it, so the city and Mayor says the elevators will pay for themselves. We calculated the cost over 15 years, and determined the four elevators would have to save $73,000 a year in order to pay for themselves. Work will start right away on the replacements.