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March 2010

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The Latest News From the World of Power Sweeping

Ranger Kidwell Ross World Sweeper Editor's Overview
Ranger Photo

by Ranger Kidwell-Ross, editor
WorldSweeper.com

I'm constantly amazed at the amount of news in our industry, and at the professionalism, scope of knowledge and capability of those involved with power sweeping in one way or another. This month's stories are excellent examples of all of the above.

As you might imagine, there were enormous challenges to keeping the pavement sparkling during the recent 2010 Winter Olympics. The Sweeping Team from the City of Vancouver had to do so while being deluged with an estimated 2.3 million visitors, 5,000 athletes and officials, and 10,000 media representatives.

Yet, due to the organization's excellent pre-planning and willingness to 'flex' with the inevitable unforeseen things that occurred, it all went off with nary a hitch. Yet, that's just one example. Read more.


March Newsletter Contents

  1. The City of Vancouver's Gold Medal Job of Sweeping at the 2010 Olympics
  2. Profile on Sharpco Sweeper Shoes
  3. Help WorldSweeper Compile a Comprehensive Consolidator List
  4. DSS Sweeper Service Uses Continuing Education and Looking Out for Customers' Best Interests As Road to Success
  5. Street Dirt; A Better Way of Measuring BMP Effectiveness
  6. Southco's Dale McCaskill Invites Customers to Join in his Company's 'March Madness Pool'
  7. Vintage Elgin Sweeper Model is Central Feature in Diorama
  8. Congress Extends Highway Program Through 2010

The City of Vancouver's Gold Medal Job of Sweeping at the 2010 Olympics

VANOC Logo When it came to keeping the area in and around the 2010 Olympics sparkling clean, the buck stopped with Jim Heeps, Superintendent of Street Cleaning for the City of Vancouver, and Dennis Cole, Acting Superintendent of Daytime Sweeping.

Due to a planning routine that started when Vancouver was first chosen for the 2010 Olympics, Vancouver's street cleaning team clearly stood atop the podium with its world-class effort during the Olympics.

Okay, Olympics' sweeping wannabees, gather 'round: Here's the situation... Read about it and listen to 15-minute audio interview.


Profile on Sharpco Sweeper Shoes

Sweeping Industry Profile Logo

Sharpco Logo It's the middle of a dark and stormy night... Do you know where your drag shoes came from? If you operate any brand of sweeper besides TYMCO, there is a high likelihood they originated from Louisiana-based, Sharpco Sweeper Shoes.

In about 1972, James Sharplin got into business building land clearing equipment for the farming industry. In 2003, one of the company's suppliers suggested Sharpco would be perfect for making sweeper drag shoes. After investigating the opportunity, Sharplin agreed, and started up in 2004. He figured there would be a large and expanding nationwide market for the shoes, since sweepers were located throughout the country.

Today, his Sharpco Sweeper Shoes makes OEM drag shoes for most all brands of U.S.-sold sweepers except TYMCO. And, Sharpco's market has gone from nationwide in the U.S. to selling drag shoes throughout many other parts of the world. Read the entire story.


Help WorldSweeper Compile a Comprehensive Consolidator List

We are in the process of compiling an exhaustive list of regional and national 'consolidators.' If you don't know the term, these are companies that procure regional and national management contracts for, typically, national chain stores. They usually contract to handle a wide variety of services, which often include such items as grounds maintenance, pavement maintenance, snowplowing and, of course, power sweeping.

WorldSweeper.com is compiling a list of as many of these as we can find, and will make these available on the website. Please help us out by letting us know of any you are aware of other than the ones shown below.

Click here to add the list.


DSS Sweeper Service Uses Continuing Education and Looking Out for Customers' Best Interests As Road to Success

DSS Logo

Viki and Kevin Kroeger are in their 11th year of ownership of DSS Sweeping Service. Tthey looked for an extended period of time until, in 1999, they found a business to buy that fit their exact requirements. From that point on, DSS Sweeping Service has seen significant growth due to the couple's educated, involved and savvy operating techniques.

Viki is the company's CEO, which provides them with 'woman owned business' status. She brings a strong background in finance and economics, which provides an element of leadership that few sweeping companies can match. Prior to taking the helm at DSS, Viki worked for over 10 years in business finance, specializing in health care finance. Read the entire story.



Street Dirt; A Better Way of Measuring BMP Effectiveness

Minton article photo

An article in the March/April Stormwater Magazine documents the value of street sweeping for runoff pollution control. Entitled, "Street Dirt," it is written by Gary Minton, president of Resource Planning Associates, and Roger Sutherland, president of Pacific Water Resources, both long-time WorldSweeper.com contributors.

The article explores a radically different means to measure effect and progress, the chemistry of street dirt. Here are the argument basics: If our BMPs are having an effect, it should be reflected in the chemistry of street dirt. Street dirt, rather than stormwater, becomes the integrator of community behavior.

For example, if the use of pesticides is being reduced over time, it will be apparent in the chemistry of the street dirt. Collecting and evaluating street dirt has many advantages over collecting water at outfalls. It is cheaper per sampling station, and it requires a lower level of technical expertise, a simpler menu of equipment, and lesser constraints on sampling procedures and analytical holding times. There is no issue of detection limits, and it is arguably safer.

The information can also be used to directly evaluate the cost and cost-effectiveness of the particular BMPs themselves, such as sump cleaning and street sweeping. Street dirt sampling can be complemented with dry and wet fall sampling as practiced by air-quality regulators. A particular BMP can be tied directly to the information that is collected. Read the entire article.


Southco's Dale McCaskill Invites Customers to Join in his Company's 'March Madness Pool'

NCAA Brackets

The day after the 2010 NCAA brackets were in place, Southco customers got an email announcing the company's NCAA March Madness Tournament Pool. By using a website designed to make it easy to set up tournament pools, it was easy for Southco to allow customers and other invited guests to sign up and hold its own pool.

McCaskill reported that this was the third customer pool Southco had done. "My customers love it," he reports. "Prizes have ranged from i-pods to vacations. It is a great way to say thanks to your customers and friends. We expect to have about 40 players total."

You can take a look at the details, including the email notification McCaskill sent to his company's customers and a few selected suppliers, including WorldSweeper.com's Editor. Check it out.


Vintage Elgin Sweeper Model is Central Feature in Diorama

Diorama

Dan Ruge discovered his childhood Matchbox toy car collection and decided to build a scale-model town to display them in. Over time, he says, the little town took on a life of its own. And, of course, any community with any sense of civic pride needs clean streets, so a street sweeper was in order.

Since the town is frozen in the mid 1960's, Ruge decided to build an appropriate vintage Elgin... as close as I could get to the ones that used to scour my local streets back when I was in grade school. It seemed like a good photo and story to add to WorldSweeper.com's 'It's a Funny Business' section. Check it out.


Congress Extends Highway Program Through 2010

adapted from Truckinginfo.com staff report Road Stripes

On March 17th the Senate passed a plan to extend the Highway Program to the end of the year and inject $19.5 billion of general revenues into the Highway Trust Fund to keep it solvent until next year. The 68 - 29 vote on a jobs bill that includes the highway program ended the uncertainty that has plagued road financing since political infighting led to a funding cut-off and furloughs at the Department of Transportation earlier this month.

On March 17th the Senate passed a plan to extend the Highway Program to the end of the year and inject $19.5 billion of general revenues into the Highway Trust Fund to keep it solvent until next year. The 68 - 29 vote on a jobs bill that includes the highway program ended the uncertainty that has plagued road financing since political infighting led to a funding cut-off and furloughs at the Department of Transportation earlier this month.

Until Congress passed this extension the program had been operating month-to-month since it came to the end of its six-year run last September. The hang-up earlier this month came when Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., objected to the funding approach proposed by the Democratic leadership in a jobs bill that included a 30-day extension of the program.

Despite opposition from the majority of both parties in the Senate, Bunning blocked the measure for several days, forcing the Department of Transportation to furlough about 2,000 employees and stop sending reimbursements to the states for federal-aid highway projects. After almost a week a deal was struck, funds started flowing again and DOT employees returned to work.

Now, with 10 months to work, Congress has an opportunity to consider a proper, long-term highway program. The degree of difficulty for passage of a multi-year program is exceptionally high, however, and it is possible that the current program will have to be extended under temporary authority into next year.

"We are delighted that the House and the Senate have reached final agreement on this significant piece of legislation," said John Horsley, executive director of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials in a statement. "It's a win for the economy and a win for workers and the communities which will benefit from the transportation projects to be built across the country."

This extension clearly has positive implications for the amount of roadway sweeping work that should occur in 2010.


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