By David Fake — Special to Amusement Today, January 2023
ORLANDO — It was at the IAAPA Expo in November 2022 that Lewis Merz and Rob Gavel sat down and signed paperwork within the Amusement Today booth. There was no flashy media announcement, official declaration or fanfare, yet that moment signified the beginning of a new chapter in the LJM and Associates, Inc. story, marking the official transfer of ownership of the company from Merz to Gavel.
The seed of the sale was planted more than a year ago when Merz, then president and owner, approached Gavel, then a subcontractor for LJM, to ask if he would be interested in purchasing the company.
It was not long after that Merz was desperately looking for a replacement for his office manager. Gavel's wife, Darlene Gavel, stepped in without hesitation, offered her skills and volunteered to run the office for Merz.
"[Darlene] has been handling all of the invoicing, banking, payables and things like that. So, it really allowed us an opportunity to just really get a feel for how the company runs. It really helped Lewis, and it has been a good thing for us, too." — Rob Gavel
Gavel's history with inspections started with the State of Maryland in 2008, when he applied for an elevator inspection role. State officials thought he'd be a better fit with amusement rides, and his career took off from there.
Over time, Gavel took promotions, ultimately becoming the chief inspector for Maryland's amusement rides division, then program manager overseeing elevator, boiler, amusement rides, and railroad inspections for the State. In 2016, he began part-time, third-party work with LJM alongside his own consulting business, Gavel Consulting Services, LLC.
By 2018, he left his state role entirely to focus full-time on subcontracting and consulting, with the majority of his work coming through LJM.
"When I started doing third party inspections full-time, it was mostly work for LJM, but also with a few clients on my own. Then over time, Lewis and I had started talking about me purchasing the company. We just settled the deal last month at IAAPA, and now Lewis will stay on acting as a subcontractor for the company." — Rob Gavel
Even after the transfer, Merz will continue going out and doing inspection work just like the other associates, always available to help guide and share his deep knowledge of the industry's history.
"He has such a large amount of knowledge of the history of the industry, that it would be really difficult to not have someone like that supporting you for a while. It will be up to him to determine how long." — Rob Gavel
A project both men collaborated on for several years is a proprietary field system designed to eliminate time-consuming paperwork and get feedback back to clients much more quickly. Gavel taught himself programming from scratch — YouTube videos, books, trial and error — and with the help of a developer, rolled out the first version of the app after about a year of development.
"It is basically a framework programming system that is good at building databases and producing reports. And that's what we really do — we collect information and we submit reports." — Rob Gavel
The app now generates a complete client report within 30 seconds after an associate finishes an inspection — compared to the hours previously spent manually completing forms. A second generation of the app, planned for release in early 2023, would further customize reports for individual clients and auto-populate jurisdictional documents like Texas AR-100s and Florida affidavits.
Gavel was emphatic that LJM remains the same company it has always been — client-centric, thorough, and dedicated to protecting people.
"LJM has always been and will always be a client-centric company where we're dedicated to making sure that they get the very best service possible. That comes from Lewis. That started with him. He's been in this industry for 30 years, at least. He's built a reputation for being conscientious and giving his all to make sure that he does the job the best he can." — Rob Gavel
Gavel promised that LJM is now still very much the same company it was before the change in ownership, offering the same high-caliber safety inspection services it has for 20 years. Steady, methodical, conscientious and thorough — LJM's approach to inspections under Merz continues under Gavel as he builds upon the solid foundation that has been laid.
This article originally appeared in Amusement Today, January 2023.
