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White House uses Indiana company for chimney project

RICHMOND, Ind. (AP) – An eastern Indiana man whose company repairs and restores chimneys recently got a good look inside the White House’s chimneys.

SaverSystems CEO John Meredith and his son, Tom, spent Aug. 9 cleaning and inspecting the White House’s seven chimneys and consulting with building maintenance staff.

The Richmond men’s work took them inside the chimneys of the Oval Office, the offices of the vice president, chief of staff and press secretary, and those in the Roosevelt Room, the Cabinet Room and the president’s study. A Secret Service officer escorted them everywhere.

John Meredith tells the Palladium-Item it was “an amazing experience.”

But he’s been to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue before. Meredith cleaned and inspected the building’s chimneys in 2013.

He started his Richmond company in 1987 in a retrofitted chicken coop.