WSA Member Update 9.1.23

September 1, 2023  Dear WSA Members,  In our August 15th WSA Member Update we apologize for incorrectly listed our latest new member, Rotterdam Lot Cleaners, LLC, as being located in Virginia instead of their correct location in New York.  With great sadness I report the passing of the former editor of SweeperMarket and PaverMarket Magazines, Mark Boyer. We were friends and business associates for over 20 years. Mark attended most all National Pavement Expo events and was THE go-to guy for questions about pricing and capability of different makes/models/years of sweepers.  However, in the last year his affliction with Parkinson’s had taken him out of the workforce and he died of complications with that dreadful disease.  This year we only had one recipient of our WSA Memorial Scholarship program. The reason: We only had one applicant, which is truly a shame since I know there must be many other children of WSA member employees who recently graduated from high school and are going on to higher education.  That said, James Kannewurf of WSA member company, KLM Commercial Sweeping Inc., was a very qualified entrant: James participated in programs and extracurricular activities inside and outside of high school and academically ended his high school career with a 4.33 GPA. You can find out more here.  Last issue we reported that one of our members was increasingly encountering homeless people sleeping on their customer parking lots and wanted ideas of action(s) to take. Here is an idea that another of our WSA members, who is also a police officer, told us in response:  “I suggest that the operator be instructed, in cases where someone is sleeping on a parking lot they’re supposed to be sweeping, to call their local law enforcement. The person may have already been served with criminal trespass, in which case they can be removed on the spot.  “However, if a problem persists at a certain property reach out to the location’s manager to make sure they know. Management could write the sweeping company a letter designating them as what we call ‘an agent to the store,’ which allows them to register a trespassing complaint to the police. This document can be shown to the police when they are called, which allows them to cite the person with criminal trespassing while they are there.”  The two-person sweeping team of one of our WSA members, Oregon-based Cantel Sweeping, experienced a serious situation when they went to a FedX facility to sweep and found it occupied by well over 100 ‘street racers.’ Although a confrontation took place, neither of the employees was seriously injured even though the sweeper’s window was bashed in and one of the operators was punched through the sweeper window.  I interviewed the owner, Michael Wagoner, about what happened and we brainstormed on future training ideas. That 12-minute audio recording may be listened to here. Because of the seriousness of this situation, I also plan to include a more in-depth article in the upcoming September WorldSweeper e-newsletter, one that will also include the news coverage of the incident.  We have received several reports about an auditing firm hired by WalMart that has notified sweeping contractors that tens of thousands of dollars are owed to be repaid to WalMart due to incorrect reporting going back three years. To provide more information to our WSA members on the topic we have done a Special Report on what is currently known about the situation. That is located here.  We have also received a so far undocumented report that in October WalMart is planning to purchase a number of slide-in parking lot sweeper machines in order to facilitate and/or test the idea of moving sweeping in-house. If you know more on that topic please let us know.   Our WSA member benefit supporter, V-Belt Supply, has received great product quality reports and routinely provides members with a 10% discount on their already low v-belt pricing 24/7/365. However, they’re holding a Labor Day 23% off sale that goes on until September 6th. Check your stock and order before then for significant savings on any v-belts you may need.  Read about them on the WSA site here, or go to www.VBeltSupply.com and use the code ‘LD23’ for the 23% discount. 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