Window Cleaning News

Reymond Manzanero Labuga a safety trainer, fell & died cleaning windows in Dubai amidst conflicting reports.

Fatal fall: Tragic loss - Filipino safety trainer dies after falling from Dubai high-rise while cleaning window; sisters in shock. The sisters of a Filipino window cleaner who fell to his death while cleaning a high-rise in Dubai are shocked at the incident because he was a stickler for safety. Reymond Manzanero Labuga, 25, died on June 3 as a result of a fatal fall while cleaning windows at Citadel Tower in Dubai's Business Bay district, near Burj Khalifa. Initial reports reveal Labuga had only been working for a week with Liverpool Cleaning Services and died of "injuries as a result of the fall", according to the Philippine Consulate in Dubai.

Conflicting reports: There were conflicting reports as to which floor he was working on - one said he was on the ninth floor while another said he was on the first floor. Labuga's elder sister Marife, 30, said "Reymond was a safety buff, so the news about his death came as a complete shock to me. He was our only brother." Marife, a call centre manager in Manila, said Reymond used to clean windows in Manila's high-rises and trained national Scouts before he decided to work in Dubai two months ago.

"He was a rope access expert and very experienced at what he does, so the news about his death from a fall came as devastating news. He was someone who would never complain… He was aware of the risks of the job. We were raised to be independent and we respected his decision to work in Dubai," Marife told XPRESS over the phone. Reymond, the middle child, was raised along with his two sisters by their mother Rosita single-handedly after their father expired in 1991. His younger sister, Christine, an architect, said: "He was a runner and into wall climbing and mountaineering. He's been away from us for just two months and now I can't believe he will be gone forever."

Philippine Consul General to Dubai Benito Valeriano said the case was still under investigation. "We are aware of this case, but we have not issued the documents. Once we have the supporting papers and the investigation is completed, the Consulate General will issue a no-objection certificate for the repatriation of the body," he said. Valeriano said since Labuga is a documented worker, his family will get all the benefits due to his beneficiaries from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration. First reported here.

Cape cabinet rolls up its sleeves for 67 minutes: Cape Town - Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and her cabinet members donned overalls as they spent 67 minutes cleaning windows, floors and cots at the city's Red Cross Children's Hospital in celebration of Nelson Mandela's 93rd birthday. While Zille, decked out in white overalls, green work pants and a green hair net, cleaned windows with some of her colleagues in the trauma ward, her other cabinet members tackled floors and beds in a ward upstairs.

Zille said the idea had been to work as a team: "We felt that if we all work together, we could achieve more than just working individually on projects. "I'm so glad that we decided to do a cleaning job because after we finished cleaning the windows, I could see it that it made a difference to the children in that ward. The sun was streaming into the ward on the beautiful day, the dirt was off the windows and it made a difference. "I would like a South African way of life to be that every night when you go to bed, you say: 'did I leave the world a slightly better place than today?" MEC of Health, Theuns Botha, who cleaned ward floors and beds, said it was a special experience as he and cabinet colleagues worked with other staff. "I just realised again that every task and position is important to make this institution a success," he said.

The hospital was also busy finalising a contract to clean the windows, but because of safety problems in the building, this had not yet been put in place. At one time, Zille showed her attention to detail when she chastised a colleague for not cleaning her window properly, while joking with a hospital staff member about the number of clothes she and a colleague were going through to clean the ward's windows. Later Zille, who sang while working with colleagues, quipped to staff at the hospital: "I've taken 67 minutes to clean one window, you'll never employ me here."

Glouco window washer charged with cleaning out jewelry from Burlco home: Medford — Police say a South Jersey window washer with a history of sticky fingers has struck again. Mark Tonelli, of Washington Township-based Magic Window Cleaning Company, turned himself in to police Thursday on charges he swiped jewelry from yet another area home. Tonelli, 49, of Fomalhaut Avenue in Sewell, has been charged numerous times with stealing jewelry from the homes of tri-county customers while working as a window washer. Some of the charges date as far back as 2007.

Police have said Tonelli is the owner of the window washing company. A man who answered the company phone Thursday hung up when asked about Tonelli. Medford police issued a warrant for Tonelli's arrest Wednesday after investigators found he allegedly stole $5,000 in jewelry from a Union Street home. Police said the homeowner contacted police June 25 after finding a pink sapphire tennis bracelet missing. The resident informed police she also believed a necklace and diamond pendant had been stolen from the home months earlier.

Police said Tonelli had been to the home to wash windows on June 25 and Nov. 23, 2010 and that he sold the pendant and necklace to an area pawn shop. Tonelli turned himself into Washington Township police Thursday morning and was later released after posting $50,000 in bail. The latest arrest for Tonelli comes just months after he was charged by Medford police with stealing about $7,500 in jewelry from a customer's home on Dec. 6, 2010. At the time of those charges, filed in February, Medford police said Tonelli was also facing theft charges out of Haddonfield and Harrison Township.

According to media reports, Tonelli was charged by Haddonfield police in February with stealing nearly $4,500 in jewelry from a house where he had washed windows. According to reports, two other Haddonfield residents later filed complaints with police claiming Tonelli had stolen jewelry from their homes. Courier-Post records show Tonelli was also charged in June 2007 with swiping nearly $20,000 in jewelry while washing the windows of an Evesham home. The 2007 charge landed Tonelli behind bars from April to December 2008, according to state corrections records. See previous blog on Tonelli here.

Valerie Pennino and her daughter, Aly, look at “Nice to See You” on Tuesday, July 12, 2011. The statue is one of 10 sculptures by Seward Johnson that have lined the streets of Downtown Lodi since April. The statues will be removed today.

Downtown Lodi’s lifelike statue exhibit bids farewell: Aly Pennino and her brother, Tony, stared quizzically at the Seward Johnson statue that has become known as “Bob the Window Washer” on the corner of Walnut Street and School Street on Tuesday. Tony, a slight, blond-haired boy, and his younger sister sauntered around the statue, never really taking their eyes off of the life-like face of the statuesque man who had been cleaning the same window of Texture Salon since he was placed there three months ago. Tony eventually smiled at the statue before he walked away, but Aly was never quite convinced that Bob was not going to suddenly come to life and look right back at her. But starting today, the Pennino siblings — and the rest of Lodi — will no longer be able to interact with the statues.

The Seward Johnson sculptures will begin to be removed starting at 7 a.m. this morning. Once all 10 are safely packed away, they will be transported back to their home in a New Jersey studio. Kathy Sauseda, owner of Texture Salon, says she has customers come in all the time and while they are getting their hair done, all they will do is watch “Bob the Window Washer” until they leave. “People will come in and say we are paying (Bob) too much to clean our windows when he hasn’t even finished the job on that one side,” she said. “He has probably been hugged more, poked more and groped more than any other statue along (School Street).” Better picture of statue here.

Was it worth the $30,000 rental fee? It's hard to put a price on fun, but 50 cents per citizen doesn't seem outrageous.

When former Telford College student Christopher Nolan won a place at the prestigious American Academy of Dramatic Arts in Los Angeles, he was delighted. But his dreams may be thwarted because the course fees will cost him $60,000 - more than £37,000 - and he can't afford to go. For the 24-year-old, who lost his job with a glazing company some months ago and has struggled to find work since, it is an impossible sum. His parents Frank and Caroline, a window cleaner and sales advisor respectively, are doing their best to help, but it is too much for them to raise in less than two months. Now he is appealing for a benefactor to chip in and help him realise his dramatic potential

Seeing a bird hit a pane of glass is one of those things that reminds us humans that maybe we aren't that dumb after all. Sure, some of us are known to run in Perspex walls every once in a while (naked, for some reason) but by and large we can tell what's plastic and what's just air. But in a twist on the whole bird-smashing-into-a-window formula, a lady from Kendal, Cumbria returned home the other day to discover this worryingly spooky imprint of an owl on her patio window. Experts have told Sally Arnold, who also took this picture with her camera, that the silhouette was caused by the bird's "powder down" -- something that young owls have on their feathers as they are growing. And because of the size and shape of the mark, the RSPB have stated that it's probably a young tawny owl that caused the impression -- and because Mrs. Arnold couldn't find it nearby, chances are the poor bugger survived. Hoorah! More bird hits from the BBC here.

Interim payout for boy hit by glass: A boy who suffered catastrophic brain injuries when a wooden-framed window and pane of glass fell two storeys onto his pushchair in London has been awarded interim damages of £800,000. The sum - the first payment of a claim worth several million - will enable five-year-old Alexander Dance and his mother, Patricia, to move to more suitable accommodation near his new school in Chislehurst, Kent. Mrs Dance was pushing four-month-old Alexander in his buggy by the Dover Castle Youth Hostel in Borough in October 2006 when he was struck by the 5ft high window. Alexander remained in intensive care for five days, suffered a fractured skull and a brain haemorrhage, and is likely to need care for the rest of his life. In 2008, hostel owners Foreign Magic Ltd were fined £20,000 at Camberwell Magistrates' Court under the Health and Safety at Work Act after an investigation by Southwark Council revealed that the openable window frames were rotten and defective and restrained by chains rather than fixed stays.

Lions select new leader: Ron Frediani was installed June 18 as the new president of the Millbrae Lions Club at the club's 74th annual Installation of Officers, held at the Basque Cultural Center in South San Francisco. A Millbrae Lion since 2002, Frediani has worked on several of the club's committees and projects, including chairing the annual Crab Cioppino Feed. He has been active for years in the community, coaching basketball, soccer, baseball and other sports. He has also served on many boards, including the Millbrae Parks and Recreation Commission. Formerly from San Francisco and San Bruno, Frediani moved to Millbrae after marrying Carol, his wife of nearly 45 years. Owners of Associated Window Cleaning in Millbrae, the couple has three grown children and four grandchildren.

The Plainview Chamber of Commerce is introducing a new membership opportunity to service industry businesses and individuals, hoping that it will help connect them with the community. "The idea came to me having served on the board for so many years and always looking for ways to benefit our members with more business," Chamber Executive Director Linda Morris (pictured) said. "I was visiting with Mike Patrick at Sunshine Cleaning, and when he asked for window decals for his service trucks it just made sense." Morris wondered, "Why not provide our service industries - that do not have a retail store or office location and yet provide a service out of a vehicle - something to benefit from being a member of the Chamber? The best part is that the residents of Plainview will have an opportunity and sense of knowledge that (service providers) are (from Plainview) and that they have a connection to their community. "We have so many out-of-town people who come to solicit business from our residents, why not use our own service providers?"

There’s a new disease affecting the middle classes: it’s called affluenza. I guess it all began with the advent of double-income nuclear families when there was plenty of money to go around but not enough time. And that’s when affluenza struck: the condition in which we throw money at every situation that we don’t have the time, energy or inclination to handle on our own. Here are some of the most common symptoms of affluenza among the cash-rich but time-poor.

Let’s see on how many counts you qualify. You have a gardener to mow your lawn, window-cleaners who turn up every week to ensure that those glass French windows always look pristine, and a guy who comes every morning to clean your car inside out (sometimes, of course, he’s called the driver and also ferries you around all day). There’s the live-in maid who does all the cleaning, dusting, ironing and grocery shopping. And the cook comes in every morning and evening to make a three-course meal and stick it in the fridge for when you are ready to re-heat and eat. See, that’s the thing with affluenza. It strikes when you’re not looking. And before you know it, you’ve got a full-blown case of infection to deal with.

I’m the treasurer of a nonprofit that recently purchased a for-profit window-cleaning franchise. We wish to use our endowment funds as collateral for a small business loan. The local community bank asked us to move our endowment money from a community foundation to their bank in order for the loan to be approved. Can it make this stipulation? —L.N., Washingtonville, N.Y.

A bank should not make your loan approval contingent solely on whether you open an account with them, but it’s not unusual for them to request that you establish a depositor relationship. In this case, the nonprofit endowment fund could help boost your local bank’s capitalization and give it easier access to the loan collateral if your window-cleaning business defaults. If you’re uncomfortable moving the endowment money to the bank, talk to some other local banks about their lending practices and see whether you might qualify for an SBA loan guarantee. "Banks should not require anybody to make a specific deposit in order to qualify for a loan, though they might ask you to open an account with them and then try to win your loan business," says John E. Batt, sales director at CapitalSource (CSE), a commercial lender based in Texas.

I just sold a home to a young couple. Their first home. Had they needed 20% down they would be looking for an apartment instead. But this is what happens in a home sale, in case you want to know how important it is to keep this industry alive. On this one sale, I met with: An electrician, a general repair man, a plumber; a window man, a lawn man, a roofer, a carpet cleaner and a window cleaner. There was also the building inspector, the termite inspector, the city code inspector and the Fire Marshall. We will also meet with the lender and the title company. That is fourteen people who will have a job to do just on this one homesale. How on earth can anyone, I don't care who it is, justify trying to mess up this industry. I don't know of any other who employs so many people for one transaction.

Condo culture: Don’t break your leg caulking that window

Q  Our directors have decided to keep costs down by asking volunteers to carry out maintenance tasks such as cleaning the eves, painting, caulking windows and trimming the trees. Some of these tasks involve climbing high ladders, which could result in serious injury. I understand most non-profit organizations carry insurance for accidental injury. However, our corporation doesn’t seem to be concerned over additional insurance. Could our corporation be held liable if a resident or volunteer was injured while completing a repair?

A  Several things must be considered if a condo board uses volunteers for maintenance. For instance, volunteers are not covered by workers compensation or disability benefits. They are also not protected for accidental injury under the corporation’s insurance policy. Legal liability is another factor to consider. If a volunteer injures a third party or damages property, he or she may become personally responsible for damages. If the board wants to protect these volunteers under the liability section of the corporation insurance policy, they must contact the condo insurance agent and request the volunteers be added as additional insured. Insurance companies may or may not agree or grant this request. It would all depend on the type of work the volunteers are carrying out. Most insurers will only consider work of an extremely minor nature. Most insurance companies would agree that residential condominium corporations obtain the services of fully insured, qualified contractors who have excellent warranties. Taking unnecessary risks is never an option when it comes to the safety and security of all condominium owners or the property.

A window cleaner turned full-time carer who plundered the bank accounts of a 94-year-old man he was caring for has been given a suspended jail term. Joseph Bennett was an employee of elderly Philip Coakes, of Churchill, Bristol Crown Court heard. But having been entrusted with Mr Coakes' bank cards, Bennett helped himself to £18,000 over four months, which he used to support his wife and daughter, aged seven. Bennett, 39, of Tavistock Road, Weston-super-Mare, pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud between September last year and late January. The recorder Mr Patterson handed him an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.

The recorder told him: "It's said a certain proportion of that was wages. Nevertheless, the bulk was money you stole in a position of trust. The aggravating features are the age of the victim, who's now frail and bed-ridden, and the fact you were in a position of trust. In your favour is your genuine remorse, this was out of character and I bear in mind your financial difficulties." Bennett was ordered to do 200 hours' unpaid work, have 12 months' supervision and pay £2,400 compensation. He told the Evening Post: "I wish I never did it in the first place and I accept what I've done. Philip and I had a good rapport and I wish none of this happened. Now I've got to work and pay it back."

John Dyer, prosecuting, said Mr Coakes had lived in the same home in Churchill for 34 years, and lived there with his wife Hazel until her death in 2009. Mr Dyer said five or six years ago Bennett became the couple's window cleaner and went on to do odd jobs for them. He said: "In March 2009 Mrs Coakes was very ill and Mr Coakes didn't have the strength to help her. Mr Bennett became full-time carer for both of them." The court heard Bennett was paid £300 to look after the couple and was so well trusted he was given bank cards to go shopping.

In the summer of 2009 police spoke to Mr Coakes about Bennett withdrawing £1,500 from his Lloyds bank account without permission. Mr Dyer said: "Mr Coakes said they were so ill they needed daily care and they forgave him. They said he could work five weeks without pay, he did this, and Mr Coakes said though his trust was completely shattered Bennett did a good job and the work continued." The court was told Bennett remained in his post following Mrs Coakes' death, but in January this year Mr Coakes learned his current account was overdrawn to the tune of £400. It transpired Bennett had defrauded £18,145.97 from his Lloyds current account and Visa trust card account, Mr Dyer said, and the bulk had since been reimbursed.

Nadeem Aullybocus, defending, said: "The defendant wanted to admit what he had been doing. He left nothing unturned in terms of the care and he really held Mr and Mrs Coakes in high esteem. He told the court his client, who is due to be evicted from his home, was on anti-depressants and felt he had let him and his family down. He said some £6,000 of the £18,000 actually represented his client's wages.

Willie Sutton, born in 1901, grew up on High St. in downtown Brooklyn as the Manhattan Bridge was being assembled over his head. He was world famous as a shrewd bank robber and clever prison escape artist. He had become a New York folk hero,Sutton learned subtlety - the use of a jimmy and a punch rather than nitroglycerin to open a safe, for example. He preferred disguises to blazing guns, pulling stickups dressed as a cop, a guard, a messenger or a window washer. He carried a gun but never shot anyone. "You can't rob a bank on charm and personality," he said. As he put it, "I was more alive when I was inside a bank, robbing it, than at any other time in my life."

UK to stop testing household products on animals: Everyday goods like glue, air fresheners and lavatory cleaner have been tested on animals for years. The experiments, usually involving rabbits, can mean shaving off hair to test irritation or force feeding animals to see if products are toxic. However Theresa May, the Home Secretary, said the practice is no longer acceptable. She is due to announce a ban on testing household products on animals shortly. The UK Government banned testing cosmetics on animals in 1998.

Michelle Thew, Chief Executive of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection, said it had taken too long to ban testing of household products as well. 'The BUAV would be delighted for the Government to finally implement a ban on animal testing for household products. After many years of campaigning on this issue it is clear that, as with animal testing for cosmetics, there is no public or political appetite for these cruel tests to continue. It is simply unacceptable for animals to suffer and die in poisoning tests for a new washing up liquid or window cleaner." The overall number of animal experiments in the UK rose last year to 3.7 million, up 105,000 on the previous year.