Friday Window Cleaning News

R.I.P Jeff Hardin, owner of Transparent Window Cleaning located in suburban Detroit, died last night. The incident was not work related. He suffered a massive heart attack. Jeff was 46 years old. Jeff had a long resume of trying to help improve our industry by helping window cleaners become educated about industry topics. He had served on the IWCA Glass committee as well as other IWCA boards, committees and what not. One of the things Jeff enjoyed was networking and sharing information with other window cleaners. He even went as far as to host gatherings at his shop for local “competitors” to come together and get to know each other. To those who had an opportunity to interact and talk with Jeff, you know that he was an exceptional guy of great character. The industry has lost an ambassador of professionalism that will be missed. Jeff is survived by his wife and his three children, ages 8, 12, and 14. A memorial fund has been set up to help with the expenses of the funeral and to provide for the children. In lieu of flowers, please send contributions directly to...
The Hardin Family Memorial
C/O Genisys Credit Union
4055 S Lapeer Road
Orion, MI 48359

Information regarding arrangements: Modetz Funeral Home 100 East Silverbell Orion, MI (248) 371-3711
Viewing Saturday, August 29. 3-8 Viewing Sunday, August 30 2-8 Funeral Monday, August 31 11am @ Modetz Funeral Home

Westview-Fairforest Fire and EMS commissioners plan to interview two finalists for a chief's position the week of Sept. 7-11, the district's board chairman said Wednesday. Chairman David Parks said (alphabetically by last name) that Cowpens Fire Department Chief Jamie Caggiano and Westview-Fairforest Interim Chief Scott Garrett are the two finalists. Each finalist will meet with the five commissioners next month. Caggiano said his father's time as a fire chief in Cherokee County helped him develop a love of providing "community oriented" fire and EMS service. "That fire district belongs to the community. It's not the chief's and not the firemen's," Caggiano said. "I want to provide that service and provide a safe and secure place for 15 or 16 guys or gals working there."Caggiano said he thinks one of his main strengths is his financial background, which includes budgeting for the fire department and owning a small business, Fish Window Cleaning.

What to do? City Hall costs a concern. Maybe there are ways to bring down operating costs, although that's easier said than done. This raises an obvious question: Why didn't someone think of window cleaning for a building that's made entirely of windows? The same goes for such needs as security, elevator maintenance and utilities, which also were over budget.

Newmarket-based ACS is one of the latest companies to join a leading edge scheme, designed to help industry improve its safety record. The firm recently received accreditation from SAFEcontractor, a programme which recognises very high standards of health & safety practise amongst UK contractors. Employing over 350 people and with a £3.4 million turnover, ACS is involved in all areas of the contract cleaning market but specialises in the bio-tech, food and university contracts. It has most recently added major players such as Newmarket Racecourses. The company’s application for SAFEcontractor accreditation was driven by the need for a uniform standard across the business.
“I am delighted that our commitment to health & safety has once again been recognised," says Chris Broadley, Managing Director. "We take our responsibility for protection and wellbeing of all our staff and contractors seriously and we understand that in a modern environment health & safety is not something that any company should simply treat as an inconvenience.” SAFEcontractor accreditation is expected to enhance the company’s ability to attract new contracts and its commitment to safety will be viewed positively by its insurers when the company liability is up for renewal. SAFEcontractor is applicable to most sectors although it is particularly relevant to food manufacture, property, facilities management, retail and leisure sectors, all of which are big users of contract services. Under the system, businesses undergo a vetting process, which examines health & safety procedures and their track record for safe practice.
Darran Hughes, Operations Director of SAFEcontractor, explains: “Major organisations can no longer run the risk of employing contractors who are not able to prove that they have sound health & safety policies. “More companies need to understand the importance of adopting good risk management in the way that ACS has done. The firm's high standard has set an example, which hopefully will be followed by other companies within this sector.” Employer-organisations that sign up too the scheme can access the database on which all approved contractors are listed, which enables them to vet potential contractors before they even set foot on site. These employers agree that, as users of the scheme, they will engage only those who have received accreditation. Over 120 major nationwide businesses, from several key sectors, have signed up to use the scheme when selecting contractors for services such as building cleaning, maintenance, refurbishment or electrical and mechanical work.

Local woman blows whistle on cleaning company: Nobody was supposed to see Gloria Rodriguez. She said she usually arrived around midnight for the overnight shift at a prominent Boston restaurant to scrub floors, tables, and toilets until they sparkled. By dawn, she was gone. But once her paychecks failed to arrive on time - or bounced - Rodriguez suddenly became a public figure in an unusual campaign against the cleaning company Coverall and the restaurants she said they cleaned, Legal Sea Foods and the Cheesecake Factory. She told her story to churches, university students, state officials, and the media, and last month to the general counsel of Coverall cleaning company, who flew up from Florida to listen. As a result, Coverall decided to donate $40,000 to two nonprofits that aided Rodriguez and other workers like her, Centro Presente and the Chelsea Collaborative. The groups said they will use the money to pay 18 workers their lost wages today at a press conference in Boston City Hall. Each nonprofit will get $5,000 as well.
But it also opens a window into the complex world of the cleaning industry, where allegations of worker abuses are causing headaches both for employees of independent contractors and for the businesses that hire them. Complaints of abuses have prompted the state attorney general’s office to investigate the cleaning industry overall, said spokesman Harry Pierre. But legal violations, as the workers found, can be difficult to prove if a subcontractor disappears, making it hard to hold anyone accountable. Rodriguez said she was excited to get a cleaning job nearly two years ago with a local franchise of Coverall Health Based Cleaning Systems, a Florida sales and marketing company that sells franchises nationwide for $10,500 to $32,000 each. The corporation provides a brand name and training and helps franchise holders get contracts - but it is up to each franchise to pay its workers. Rodriguez said she cleaned for a month at the Cheesecake Factory and for more than two months at Legal Sea Foods in the Boston area and was paid less than she earned. Her husband also worked for two months and was not paid at all.

A woman told a court she has been put off sausages for life after seeing her neighbour pleasuring himself in his back garden. Denise Woodage complained to police after she allegedly saw Paul Darlow rubbing his genitals, mowing his lawn and cleaning his windows several times completely naked – apart from a pair of boots. Following complaints of similar behaviour in March last year, police installed a CCTV camera at Ms Woodage’s home, which overlooks Darlow’s back garden, which captured the incident. Darlow, 53, a married stepdad-of-two, was at his home in Churchwood Walk in Calcot on November 7, when he was charged with indecent exposure with intent to cause alarm or distress.
Giving evidence at Reading Crown Court yesterday, Ms Woodage said: “I would see him two or three times a month, naked, mowing the lawn or cleaning the window, always naked apart from a pair of boots. I saw him twice pleasuring himself, it made me feel sick, he has put me off men. “Put it this way – it has put me off my sausages for life.” But Darlow said the November incident was a one-off “moment of madness”, not realising anyone was watching him, and he was embarrassed and ashamed. Asked why he did it, he told the court: “It was lax judgement.” The court heard he told police in interview he swore at his neighbour because he saw her looking into his garden when he went downstairs in his boxers to chase a pair of cats away. He denied ever being naked or touching his genitals. But in court yesterday he said: “I did not know anyone was watching. Up until yesterday I was sticking to my story I gave in my police interview that I never did it, but when I knew there was CCTV I had to change it.” Darlow, on conditional bail, denies the offence. The trial continues.

When Donnie Clark was cleaning the windows on an East Manteca home Tuesday afternoon, the process meant much more to him than just another job. With his Five Star Window Cleaning business taking up the majority of this time, Clark – who worships at Manteca’s Place of Refuge (formerly First Assembly of God) and just recently enrolled his sons into class at the affiliated Manteca Christian School – the task of sprucing up the country estate that has for the last several months been the home of Pastor Richard Brown was more of an honor for the local resident than it was a chore.
After all, it was Brown who that planted the seeds for what would eventually become Manteca Christian School when it was he who was at the helm of First Assembly – an institution that has a special place in the heart of the father who recently sent his son to attend classes there. “My son has what a lot of people would call attention-deficit hyperactive disorder, and he had nothing but problems when we had him enrolled in public school,” Clark said. “Once we put him in Manteca Christian School we noticed a marked improvement, and he really started to take to the faith-based curriculum that the school offers its students. “I’m eternally grateful for how much Manteca Christian School has helped my son.” And in a sense, he’s eternally grateful to Brown for laying the framework for what would eventually become his saving grace.
Tuesday’s free spruce-up session was a chance for Clark to say thank you to the man – who moved back to Manteca last year to deal with the debilitating Lou Gehrig’s disease clinically known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – who moved back to Manteca to live in-home where rent is being paid by the members of the First Assembly congregation as a thank you for the time he put into building the church into what it is today. With the mercury creeping up, Clark and another member of his crew spent the latter part of Tuesday morning going over all of the windows in the rural country home as a way to honor the man who inadvertently affected his life greatly through his actions when he was at the helm of the church – something he couldn’t have been more proud to be able to do.
With his tools in hand, Clark continued with making sure that Brown gets a clear view out of each of the windows inside of his new home, and has big plans on helping out other families in the community that might need assistance as well – knowing that nothing he does in the future will compare with helping a man that had such a big impact on his own family.“It feels good to be able to make a family happy, especially when it’s somebody like Pastor Brown that has done so much for this community,” Clark said. “We’re planning on continuing this and making sure that those who need assistance can receive it.” Five Star Window Cleaning is a licensed operator here in the Central Valley and is searching for needy families who could use their expertise. To contact them call 450-2756.

Cillit Bang used in clean-up at Dounreay: The BBC has today covered the use of Cillit Bang in the clean-up of the Dounreay Site. The press release issued by Dounreay Site Restoration Limited can be found below. Nuclear sites across Britain are showing interest in the discovery by workers at Dounreay that one of the country's best-selling household cleaner removes plutonium stains more effectively than many industrial clean-up products. The discovery came when a decommissioning team found their normal cleaning fluid was slowing down work to dismantle an experimental chemical plant used in the 1980s to recycle plutonium liquor.
One of the team suggested trying Cillit Bang, after watching a television advert that suggested it could strip grime instantly from a 2p coin. The idea was taken up by managers who ordered tests on the £1.99 household cleaner. These confirmed its effectiveness and the product is now playing a key role in keeping on the track the clean-out and demolition of the plant,a test-bed for the giant THORP reprocessing plant at Sellafield. The nuclear site in Cumbria is among those who have been in touch with Dounreay to learn more about the discovery.

‘I’ll run till my leg drops off’: A WINDOW cleaner aged 65 who has completed 45 marathons for charity says he will keep running until one of his legs drops off. Tony Bell, of the Bramleys, Rochford, has done all the races in the past 14 years. In that time, Tony has run as many as four marathons a year, as well as completing countless other charity runs. He has also taken part in several ultra marathons – the longest a gruelling 50-mile event in South Africa, which he took almost 12 hours to finish.
Tony credits his window cleaning, as well as a tough exercise regime, for his incredible fitness. He said: “My job has supported the running as it has kept me active and outdoors. “Sometimes I’m dead on my feet at the end of a hard day and the last thing I want to do is go for a run, but I always go.” Over the years Tony has raised money for a number of charities.
His brother died of leukaemia aged just four and his sister died of cancer aged 36, and he said their deaths have helped motivate him. He said: “They both died young and that sort of gave me the spark. “Their memory is always in the back of my mind and I think it pushes me along.” His next undertaking is the Run the Beat Half Marathon in London, on September 27, and at just 13 miles it should be a stroll in the park for Tony. He is running in support of Little Havens Hospice children’s hospice, in Thundersley, and anyone who wishes to make a donation should e-mail TonyBell8@yahoo.co.uk Tony will also run the London Marathon next year, fitness permitting, and has no plans to hang up his running shoes. He said: “I will take each run as it goes. “You know in your heart when to pack something in, but I think I’ll keep on running until one of my legs drops off.”

WCR Nation Season 4 Episode #2 from chris wcr on Vimeo.