WSA Member Update 2.1.23

February 1, 2023  Dear WSA Members,  Unless you just mailed your 2023 WSA membership dues you should have received your renewal packet via Priority Mail by now. If you haven’t received your packet yet, or haven’t received your renewal invoice, please let me know.  This year’s recipient of the WorldSweeper/WSA Award of Excellence in Power Sweeping has been announced to be Laurie and Jay Presutti, owners of New York-based East Coast Industrial Services, Inc. As you will learn, this WSA member company was chosen for a variety of reasons.  PAVEMENT magazine has listed East Coast as the 12th largest contractor in the U.S., also a nice honor, and you can see how to apply to that program further down the page. Although you can see the presentation wording now, in the next few days we’ll be adding to that coverage a Zoomcast with the two principals.   In the last WSA Member Update we promised an article about the alleged nonpayment and other issues about working with Northeast Landscaping & Tree Services Inc. (N.E.L.T.S.), a third party vendor company located in Franklin, CT. After collecting information from sweeping contractors and others, then conducting an interview with the company’s CEO, Antonio Portunato, the article was published in WorldSweeper.com’s January e-newsletter. In the interest of the entire industry, WSA collaborated with WorldSweeper to provide the information to more than just its members.  During the interview, Portunato was asked to explain various details about his operation of the company as well as about some of the negatives that had been raised by contractors. Portunato’s replies in some instances were in direct contradiction to the documentation WSA/WorldSweeper had been provided.  In the transcription of the interview, some of the information that had been previously submitted to WSA/WorldSweeper were linked to allow the reader to decide for themselves what the truth is about the ethics of N.E.L.T.S., as well as the advisability of contracting with this particular third party vendor. BTW, Portunato said that the company is now moving to entirely self-performance of sweeping services.  As you may know I write a column for WSA for each issue of PAVEMENT magazine. The March/April issue will focus on sealcoating so the upcoming article, which I also added to the WSA website at this link, is about the value of pavement sweeping both prior to and after the sealcoating process.  In addition, the information has been added as a pdf in the WSA website’s ‘Forms‘ table of contents category. The handout file has been added to the top link, FORMS AND HANDOUTS FOR POWER SWEEPING CONTRACTORS. BTW, this addition brought the total number of handouts and similar forms in just that one section to 27.  As you will read I include the general rule that a ‘mid-level’ parking lot sweeper should be used. Over time, I have heard a number of reports that single-engine sweepers, especially, are not capable of removing the small rocks that need to be gone prior to sealcoating. If this is contrary to your experience feel free to let me know.  Going back to top contractor awards… PAVEMENT magazine is now taking applications for its Top Contractor Awards, which include sweeping contractors. Especially since fewer sweeping contractors have historically taken the time to apply for the awards, your opportunity for becoming seen as one of the top contractors in the U.S. is better than in some of the other pavement trades. Gaining that honor is definitely something that will help your business in the eyes of your customers and prospects.  As always, if you have questions or comments about this WSA Member Update, or anything else to do with the World Sweeping Association or power sweeping in general, please let me know.  Good Sweeping,  Ranger Kidwell-Ross, Executive Director World Sweeping Association