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| Mines a Guinness! |
Windows Next? Reverse Graffiti Actually Cleans Surfaces, but San Francisco Disapproves (Video): An advertising company called GreenGraffiti has come up with an ingenious way to provide clean marketing messages: reverse graffiti. By putting company-branded stencils on dirty sidewalks and pressure washing the ground, the stencils create a pattern in the shape of the stencil, often a company logo. Customers include Starbucks, Virgin Mobile, Patagonia, Range Rover, and Sony. But city officials in San Francisco are unhappy with this form of advertising and are seeking a way to have it banned.In fact, reverse graffiti can be equated to seeing "wash me" on a dirty car window. While swiping a finger across the surface to create the "wash me" message cleans the actual surface, most would agree that it's an eyesore and rather immature. Companies reverse washing their logos onto sidewalks with this type of graffiti may face the same backlash. Despite the potential "annoyance factor," this type of green graffiti can potentially gain favor if advertisers show willingness to clean up other parts of the city or donate some funds to city projects where they're posting their messages. Previous blog on this subject here.
OMG! It’s Gaga’s friend Zombie Boy without his tattoos: Before finding fame as model, Canadian Rick was living on the streets of Montreal, working as a window cleaner and appearing in a circus freak show to fund his tattoos. He was chosen by Gaga’s stylist Nicola Formichetti to star in the Born This Way video, and since his appearance along side Gaga he’s found work as a model, even walking the runway at Paris Fashion Week this year. So far, Zombie Boy’s body art only covers the top half of his body, but he is hoping to cover his legs, too. Previous blog here.
Q and A: A return to the ministry: Mike Lee isn’t new to The River Church, but for the past month or so he’s had a new job. Lee, a Farmington resident, took over Sept. 1 as pastor at the downtown church he has attended since 2004, and where he and his wife have been associate pastors since 2006. We sat down with him Monday to talk about his new role, chili carts and how to get men to come to church.
Why did you get away from the ministerial side of things in between moving back here and now?
I started my own business, My Three Sons Window Cleaning, that we started seven years ago February. And we just raised our boys.
What was it about the situation now that made you think it’s time to go back and get into it a little more?
Our kids are getting older, so they’re in school. And my business allowed me to have more time. I can manage it now rather than having to clean all the windows. That allows more time.
Ralph Bronk, an arborist, recommends residents use an extension pole, similar to those used by painters and window cleaners, to remove snow from trees before the branches are damaged. Extension poles can be found at most hardware stores. "If you have one of them handy, you can start tapping the branches on the tree. You want to start probably at the bottom so you don't build up additional snow load knocking the snow from the top to the bottom. You start at the bottom and just keep working your way up tapping the branch enough to get the snow to fall off," Bronk said. While extension poles can be very helpful in clearing snow from tree branches, care should be taken to make certain electrical power lines are not in or near the tree. |
| The Windex Mini has become the company's online bestseller. |
SC Johnson introduced a version of its popular Windex window cleaner earlier this year that's sold in a "snip 'n' pour" pouch, above left, so customers can refill old bottles with a concentrated Windex formula diluted with water from the tap. The company also is test marketing a contraption called the All-in-One, above right, a dispenser for concentrated versions of Scrubbing Bubbles, Fantastik and other cleansers. And in March, Procter & Gamble is scheduled to introduce Tide Pods, a “compacted” version of liquid laundry detergent in single-use capsules meant to eliminate the need to measure and reduce the overuse of soap.
These kinds of super-concentrated cleaners have come and gone since the '70s, with mostly limited success. But consumers will see a resurgence of them in the months to come due to the success of niche cleaning products and pressure from large retailers including Wal-Mart, which are seeking to maximize shelf space, reduce their environmental footprint and showcase their eco-stewardship. For manufacturers, concentrated cleansers mean less water, less weight and lower shipping costs. For shoppers, the form and look of products used every week in the house could change dramatically. Among the benefits: fewer heavy bottles to lug and, perhaps most important, less packaging that needs to be recycled.
“Compaction allows us to do well while doing good,” said Len Sauers, vice president of global sustainability for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati. “It reduces packaging through size reduction, which ultimately results in fewer trucks needed for transportation and a reduction in emissions.” The Windex Mini pouch uses 90% less plastic packaging than a traditional 26-ounce trigger bottle, avoiding the transport of 1.5 pounds of water per bottle, SC Johnson spokeswoman Kelly Semrau said. If 20% of the 21 million bottles of Windex Original sold in the U.S. each year were refilled, the company estimates, it would avoid shipping 6 million pounds of water and save 350,000 pounds of plastic.
Clearly, reducing the water in common household cleaners has advantages. Yet customers do not always buy in. According to the 2011 Eco Pulse Study conducted by the Shelton Group in Knoxville, Tenn., 7 in 10 Americans are searching for sustainable products but will try a greener product only if it's comparably priced and a known brand. The 2.9-ounce Windex Mini pouch makes a 26-ounce bottle of Windex and costs 40 to 50 cents less than a traditional bottle of Windex, according to spokeswoman Semrau. Still, “consumers think that it needs to be cheaper than that,” Semrau said, adding that SC Johnson is doing more studies on Windex Mini, currently available through the SC Johnson website.
The Mini pouches are shipped in a 100% post-consumer-recycled corrugated box, part of which can be turned into a photo frame. They are mailed through greenshipping.com. The Windex Mini has become the company's online bestseller, Semrau said. Yet when a product requires real behavior change, “most retailers would kick us off the shelf before we'd even have time for an idea like this to catch on fire,” she said. The company does not know when the Windex Mini will be available in U.S. stores.
John Koch (1909–1978) - The Window Washers: Window Washers is a fine example of Koch’s characteristic style and subject matter, a manner that he had fully codified by the time he had begun to earn good money as a society portraitist, and was able, in 1954, to move into the spacious rooms of two 10th floor apartments in the El Dorado building that would serve the couple for the rest of Koch’s career as home, studio, and salon for gatherings of a select circle of friends. In Window Washers, as in all of Koch’s oeuvre, light, whether artificial, natural—or both at once—functions as the artist’s alter ego. Koch’s light is the theater impresario who authoritatively enters a room, looking carefully and loving about as he does, and extends his hand delicately but firmly to bless all things beloved by the artist with touches of radiance, translucence, and quickening warmth.
Window Washers is also a subcategory of Koch’s interiors in which he depicted workmen attending to maintenance chores, a subject that insinuated the ideas of ordinariness and routine into a setting of studied delectation. Koch savored the quiet independent ritual of daily work in his studio and derived considerable contentment from the patrician view of city life offered by his north-facing studio windows: the neighboring apartment building with its lush pink brickwork, beaux arts architectural details and opportunity for inventing decorative window treatments, the aerial view of the traffic on Eighth Avenue including the iconic yellow taxi, and the green borders of stately Central Park. Window Washers is essential Koch, each day lived as an exquisite measure of delight. In Koch's painting, sunlight washes across the room's walls, floor and furnishings as a window washer, perched half-in, half-out of a window overlooking the Hudson River, cleans a glass pane with a cloth.
Forward-thinking architects are coming around to the view that inner-city tower blocks and woodland can be combined and are incorporating both in their latest designs. Plans for "vertical forests" – 25-floor buildings, flecked with balconies full of bushes and small trees – are sprouting up in several European countries. Fittingly, Milan, the continent's design capital but also one of western Europe's most polluted cities, is leading the way with the construction of two green towers. The Bosco Verticale (vertical wood) project, due to be completed in 2015, consists of two residential blocks, 110 metres and 76 metres in height, set in the Isola neighbourhood just north of the city centre. The towers will house a total of 900 trees, ranging from 3m to 9m in height, plus thousands of shrubs and flowering plants.
Stefano Boeri, the architect responsible for the design, says that together the buildings will provide the city with the equivalent of a further 10,000 square metres of woodland. The layer of foliage around the apartments is supposed to produce humidity, absorb CO2 and dust particles, produce oxygen and shield the building from traffic noise. Energy recycling systems that generate power from sunlight and wind should produce "dramatic" energy savings. The designers say that the plants provide shade in the summer and allow more light through during the winter months after they have shed their leaves.
But all that environmental technology doesn't come cheap. Prices at the exclusive development will start at €750,000 for 100 square metres, near the ground, rising to €1.2m for flats with spectacular views across the city. Architects in other populous, compact continental cities with chronic traffic and pollution problems are also turning to green skyscrapers to help the environment. In Valencia the planned Torre Huerta will feature balconies with trees and the use of solar cells. In Barcelona, the helical Stairscraper, in which the roof of each apartment will house the garden of the dwelling above it, is due for completion by the end of 2015.
But the problem of how to keep the foliage looking good – and doing its job– has yet to be resolved. Mr Brunello said plans for gardeners to descend, like window cleaners, on rigs outside the Bosco Verticale are being ditched in favour of "garden-freeclimbers" – think Spiderman armed with clippers and green-fly spray.
War hero, gym founder and businessman Ken dies (88) - A decorated war hero who lived an incredibly packed life to the full has died aged 88. Mr Ken Cowgill, of The Paddock, Burnley was a familiar face after turning a small window cleaning round into one of the area’s biggest cleaning firms in the 1960s. His son Adrian described him as a hard-working man who helped others. “He was my dad, my boss, my best friend and my golf partner,” he said. Born in Brierfield, Mr Cowgill attended Walter Street School before being drafted into the Army for the Second World War aged 18. He served in the 16th/5th Queen’s Royal Lancers as a tank commander spending much of his service in North Africa and Italy and was seconded for covert operations with the Special Air Service, including an attempt to kidnap Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. Days after returning from duty in 1946 he married his teen sweetheart Ethel, who wrote to him everyday for four-a-half years while he was away. After a stint as a delivery man for Bob Lord’s butchers he bought a window cleaning round before expanding into industrial cleaning and forming Ken Cowgill Ltd, in Colne Road, employing 40 men. Despite work and social commitments, Adrian said he will remember his dad as a man who had time for others. “He wasn’t bothered about himself and just wanted to help other people. He was a real grand fella.”
WorkWise BlogTip: Go to extremes to grab attention - Fed up? Are you ready to use extreme tactics to land a job? Linda Ginac (talentguard.com) has helped people develop some that worked. She recommends letting them spark your creativity. The first job seeker wanted to meet an investment banker’s CEO. Becoming a skyscraper window-washer allowed him to tape his résumé on the man’s window.
Funeral of murdered Hull man can finally be held after family's two-year battle with Spanish authorities: The family of a man murdered in Spain have spoken of their two-and-a-half year battle to hold his funeral. Charles Stabler, 64, died after he was attacked at his holiday home in the resort of Benalmadena in April 2009. His family struggled for more than two years to find out about the murder trial while battling Spanish authorities to release his body. Charles's murderer was jailed in May this year, but his family were still not allowed to hold a funeral. Lifelong Hull FC fan Charles, born in the Hessle Road area of west Hull, spent most of his life working at Capper Pass in Melton. When he was made redundant, he set up a window cleaning business with his partner Joanne, who died from cancer six years ago. Charles, who lived in Sutton Park, had owned his apartment in the Costa Del Sol for more than 20 years. He died after he was hit over the back of the head and slashed across the face before his holiday home was set on fire. He spent three weeks in a coma in a Malaga hospital before losing his fight for life on May 1, 2009.
Window cleaner climbs military ladder: A former window cleaner from Bridlington is preparing for a new military career after committing himself to Army training at the Infantry Training Centre (ITC) in Catterick. James Child, 24 from Bridlington, decided to swear his Oath of Allegiance in front of family and friends at the Scarborough Army Careers Office because of the job security and travel opportunities offered to servicemen. James, who has lost a stone in weight through fitness training to prepare himself for the Infantry course, said a lack of jobs locally also drew him towards joining the army. James said: “I’m really going to miss my friends and family, but I’m looking forward to starting my training and learning more about my role.” The demanding 26-week Combat Infantryman’s Course will improve James’ fitness and stamina whilst providing him with the weapon and fieldcraft knowledge essential for frontline service.
Burglars twice target Willenhall woman, 96: A 96-year-old woman from Willenhall has twice been targeted by distraction burglars posing as window cleaners, police revealed today. Money and jewellery was taken from the pensioner’s home in one of the burglaries. A man demanded money from the Portobello pensioner after claiming to have cleaned her windows and guttering. He spoke to the victim through the front bay window of her home but was disturbed by a neighbour before he could get inside. It came just six days after a man posing as a window cleaner got into the victim’s house and stole money and jewellery.
Falls from height remain the most common cause of workplace fatality. In 2008/09 there were 35 fatalities, 4654 major injuries and a further 7065 injuries that caused the injured person to be off work for 3 days or more. For those working in commercial window cleaning businesses, this is a very serious issue. Unger, one of the leading manufacturers of professional cleaning tools, offers a modular pole window cleaning system that reaches up to 65ft, enabling safe operation from the ground without the need for ladders. The pure water filter means that no chemicals are necessary, making it a safe and environmentally friendly solution.
Glass falls from Austonian high-rise after unknown object strikes window, officials say: Just when you thought it was safe to go back into downtown Austin. Pieces of glass again fell from a downtown high-rise, this time coming from the Austonian condominiums at Second Street and Congress Avenue Tuesday night. The glass fell after an unknown object hit an exterior window on the 45th floor of the downtown building, officials said Wednesday. No injuries were reported. The object hit the window on the building's east side about 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Fire Department Specialist Andre De La Reza said. Wind carried some of the falling glass north of the building, and two cars along West Third Street were damaged, said Cile Montgomery , spokeswoman for the Austonian. Third Street was briefly closed Tuesday night. Montgomery said Austonian officials are investigating what hit the window. De La Reza said the window had a two-pane setup, and only the exterior window was broken. The remaining broken glass was removed Wednesday, causing more pieces to fall to the street about 10:40 a.m. Workers use a pole to knock out the remaining glass of a 45th-story window at the Austonian, Austin's tallest building.
Safety fears as window falls from derelict Port flats: Fears over the condition of a long-derelict block of flats in Port Bannatyne have worsened this week after a pane of glass fell from a top floor window and smashed on to the street below – narrowly missing passers-by and parked cars. Neighbours contacted Argyll and Bute Council after the incident at Buckingham Terrace, and the building was fenced off before local contractor Ian McMillan began work on boarding up all the windows in the derelict blocks at numbers 12 and 14 Castle Street.
Sault court windows cleaned: Cleaning a stained glass display at the provincial courthouse is a tall order. Twenty-five foot high scaffolding was put up on the main floor to reach about 75 pieces of yellow, burgundy and clear glass by a stairwell near the main entrance. The courthouse is being extensively cleaned following a suspicious fire in the basement in August. The glass is original to the 89-year-old building on Queen Street East, designed by chief architect Frank Heakes. Sizes range from one-by-one foot to two-by-two feet. The glass is in good shape with no fire damage, but some supporting bars were straightened out. A few years have passed since the stained glass, especially at the top end, got a good cleaning, said Moore. "It was a lot more than we actually thought," he said. "There's a lot of stuff that fell when they cleaned the glass. There was enough that it was warranted to be done." The stained glass cleaning was subcontracted to Glassworks. The downtown business resealed the exterior wood moulding of Sault Ste. Marie Museum's tower clock in 2010. Five Glassworks employees used a "special window cleaner" and soft bristle brushes to clean the glass. It took about five days to clean the glass. Final work was done Monday.
PPG Industries and Pleotint have contracted an accord to promote a commercial window glass structure that mixes Pleotint’s Sunlight Responsive Thermochromic or SRT (TM) interlayer expertise with that of SOLARBAN(R) low-emissivity (low-e) glass of PPG and also its other glass types to check solar heat gain within the buildings and to bring down energy cost. The patented technology of Pleotint utilizes a lowly tinted thermochromic interlayer that gets warm and becomes dark when exposed to direct sunlight but opens in for indirect sunlight to enable the light to enter into the building. The SRT interlayer sandwiched between two lites of glass can be utilized monolithically or in an insulating glass unit. The SRT interlayer adjusts the entry of visible light transmittance (VLT) all through the day without requiring any type of wiring, power supply and control requirements.
When combining the SRT interlayer with that of a window system utilizing Solarban glass with an established e-glass with solar control provided by PPG, the interlayer also blocks the entry of solar heat inside the construction and allows passing of visible light. Such windows drastically cut down the requirement of energy usage required to cool the buildings. Also the new combination windows brighten up the indirect sunlight within the building to bring down the usage of artificial lighting within the building, thus saving on energy costs.
Suspended sentences for pair who broke man’s jaw in kebab shop fight: Two friends who fractured a man’s jaw during an attack in a Stamford kebab shop have been given suspended prison sentences. Scott Taylor, 21, and Nathan Robinson, 20, were each ordered to pay their victim £1,500 compensation after Recorder Peter Cooke accepted they had punched him in a “moment of madness”. Lincoln Crown Court heard the two men each struck the man with a single heavy blow after Mr Taylor bumped into him during “horseplay” inside Zorbas kebab shop in Red Lion Street. The victim attended Peterborough City Hospital after the attack and was later transferred to Addenbrookes Hospital near Cambridge where he required surgery to fit plates in his jaw and remove two broken teeth. Both Taylor and Robinson were identified by a local police officer after the incident was caught on CCTV inside the kebab shop. During interview Taylor admitted bumping into the victim as he fooled around with Robinson while they waited for their food. When Robinson was shown the CCTV footage he admitted the attack on the man looked “fairly unprovoked.” The court heard Robinson had lost his job as a window cleaner after suffering a football injury.
A Scarborough man has been jailed after hurling a table at his former partner which injured her foot during a row. Andrew Davis, of Prospect Crescent, was sentenced to 10 weeks in prison after throwing the table and a laptop computer at the woman from the top of the stairs. Scarborough Magistrates’ Court yesterday heard Davis, 40, a self-employed window cleaner, threw the items down the stairs after she told him to get out of the house the next day. Prosecuting, Martin Butterworth told the court the incident had escalated after the pair had enjoyed an evening out together in Scarborough. He said: “She had gone out drinking with some old school friends and had been joined by him. “They were walking home along Dean Road when he disappeared, she was not quite sure where, so she walked home alone. “He was already at the home when she got back and a dispute occurred. “He was angry and she could not explain why. “He was standing at the top of the stairs throwing things at her which included a laptop, plant pots, a table and potpourri.”
Mitigating, Franklyn Garvey said Davis deeply regretted his part in the incident. He said: “He is extremely remorseful and knows he has got to face the music. “On the night in question, they had gone out but were not flat on their backs with an excess of alcohol and his ex-partner says that he was not drunk. “They were walking back home along Dean Road when he was caught short and went into an alleyway to spend a penny. “He decides there that he is going to play a prank on his partner and surprise her when she goes past the alleyway at the other end. “However, he gets there and there is no sign of her so he goes home. “When she arrived home, he said she went out to her car before telling him; ‘I want you out of this house by the morning’. “For a split second he has lost it and the red mist has descended. “He grabbed hold of the first item close to him and threw it. “He realises that he must have put the fear of God up his partner with the way he reacted. “He is beside himself with remorse.” After handing Davis 10 weeks in prison for common assault, magistrates also imposed a two week term to run alongside the sentence for criminal damage to account for the items which were broken during the incident.
Window Genie Window Cleaning Franchise Comes to Northwest Georgia: Window Genie®, a national franchisor of window cleaning and other home services, has granted a new franchise territory to Benjamin Hankins, who runs his franchise from his office in Chattanooga. Hankins’ franchise services Catoosa County, Walker County, Whitfield County, Dade, Chattooga County, Floyd County, and Gordon County, Georgia, and surrounding areas. Hankins grew up in Bristol, Tennessee and went to the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. From there he went to work for the Air Force in Warner Robins, Georgia. After that, he moved to Atlanta for 10 years, where he met his wife Tracey, who worked for SunTrust for 17 years. Six years ago, the Hankins moved to Chattanooga, where they are raising their family. In 2008 Hankins started researching his options and finally decided that a Window Genie franchise would be the ideal move. He voluntarily quit his job, something not many people are doing in this economy. “Job security is not necessarily more secure in the corporate world than owning your own business,” admitted Hankins. “You write your own checks, and you can work harder and smarter in your own business and make it work, while in the corporate world, you can work smarter and harder and still get fired.”
ABLE provides jobs for disabled; nonprofit group started nearly 50 years ago. The program turned into ABLE Industries, a nonprofit organization that provides employment and a variety of training for adults with disabilities. ABLE at one time stood for A Better Living Enterprise. Some of the areas ABLE clients perform work in include packaging, assembly, janitorial, window washing, grounds maintenance and paper shredding. Ayers said the organization has done work for thousands of businesses, including NASA, the state Department of Transportation, National Pretzel and numerous state prisons. The prison system is one of its biggest clients.
Help! My Franchise Is Failing: As a franchise consultant, I often remind people of a chief reason for buying into an established chain: You’re not by yourself. A good franchisor, whether it’s a big player like Burger King or a smaller chain such as Moe’s Southwest Grill, should provide critical support if your location runs into a cash crunch or suffers a loss of customers. That’s part of the appeal of buying into a franchise rather than starting a business from scratch. If you’re thinking about becoming a franchisee, ask existing franchisees about the support they’ve received from the parent company – or ask the franchisor itself about its commitment to franchisees, especially in a tough economy. If you’re already a franchisee, but are experiencing a setback, don’t be afraid to ask your franchisor for assistance.
Sales: In the beginning, franchisors typically offer lots of initial and advanced sales training as a normal part of their support services. But in troubled times, franchisors can step up their game by sending their own staff into a franchisee’s location to provide real-world training and extra help in signing up clients. The franchisor also might establish mentoring programs to rapidly increase a franchisee’s skills, or share real-world knowledge and timely best practices from other successful franchisees. Finally, the franchisors can bring in outside expertise by hiring sales experts to provide state-of-the-art professional sales training to franchisees. In recent years, I’ve seen a number of service-based franchises – Fish Window Cleaning, Dryer Vent Wizard and PuroClean, among others – help franchisees in this way.
Fair amplifies small-business voices: It was the first time Dave Ziervogel attended the event. In November, he and his wife, Debbie, started a Fish Window Cleaning franchise in Columbia. Although he isn’t sure how much business the fair might generate for the franchise, he will at least have one new customer: The bowl on Ziervogel’s table collecting business cards for a free window cleaning was full. “I know the economy’s a little difficult, but hopefully we get a few jobs out of it,” Ziervogel said.
Meadow Vista resident Nate Esway, 28, became a musician through the drums, but has since added several other instruments to his repertoire. Esway was born in San Jose but moved to Meadow Vista in 1989. He currently works at his father’s ceramics studio in Auburn and has his own window washing business. He has been a musician since before he was a teen and a songwriter since he was 18. Esway says "I started playing drums when I was 12 years old, and I picked up the guitar when I was 15." "And I have pretty much been playing guitar as my main instrument since I was 15." "As far as writing songs, I have been writing original music seriously since 2001." "(Writing music) is almost like therapy for me." "I usually take ideas that are somewhat personal to me and try to make them more abstract."
Stranded after bedsheet escape bid: Allegedly upset with her employer, a young Indonesian domestic helper tried to make her escape from an eighth-storey HDB flat in Bedok North. In a move right out of the movies, she tied pieces of blankets and clothes together and tried to lower herself down from the bedroom window. But she had cold feet and found herself stuck on a ledge a floor below. Shin Min Daily News reported that the 23-year-old claimed that her boss had slapped her, and she had been afraid and upset. The incident happened around 6 am on Friday.
The report also said a cleaner had spotted the woman standing on a small ledge on the seventh storey. He told Shin Min: "I was working, looked up and saw her." A black luggage bag was tied to the end of her improvised "rope". He had gestured for her to stay there, and she seemed to understand, he said. A police spokesman said they received a call for assistance. It was reported that the maid was taken to a police station for questioning and then sent to the maid agency.
The neighbour, whose ledge the maid was stuck on, said she was shocked when the police knocked on her door in the morning. Madam Su, 65, a housewife, told reporters that as her windows opened outwards, there was a fear that the maid would lose her balance. She recounted how the officers spoke in Malay to get the domestic helper to calm down and get back in. Once back inside on safer ground, the maid started to cry, she claimed. It is believed that the domestic helper had been with her current employers for three to four months.
Councillors will look into reports that elderly residents feel they are being ‘abandoned’ at sheltered housing schemes. Residents at two sheltered schemes in the Forest Heath area believe that changes made by Flagship Housing have drastically reduced the level of service they are receiving. Councillors heard that gardening, window cleaning, satellite TV services and external cleaning of the site had all stopped since May – despite residents still paying for them. Councillors will visit sheltered housing providers in the area. A report is expected back to council by December 10. Cllr Tim Huggan called the situation ‘shocking’.
Leavenworth County Commission to meet: The commission will meet at 9 a.m. Thursday for public comment and administrative business. County Clerk Janet Klasinski will discuss the redistricting of commission districts and Buildings and Grounds Director John Forslund will discuss bids for window washing and painting.
Seniors service gets rave reviews: A City of Wetaskiwin home support program aimed at help se
niors with tasks within their residences has received rave reviews from its clientele. In her recent report to city council, Family & Community Support Services manager Virginia Lehman said she was overwhelmed by the positive support she received following a survey. "We go in and assist seniors with their housekeeping, or things that make it difficult for them (to accomplish), so they can stay in their homes. "At the present time, and they change constantly, we have 75 homes that we go into." Lehman said she conducted a mini-survey with all her clientele, and was she elated with the results. "I was absolutely astounded because usually there is something that's not right, but it was 100 per cent happy with the service."
Part of Lehman's surprise over the results is the fact that the fees increased in the past year for the homemaker service. The cost now ranges from $7.50 to $15 an hour. It was the first increase since 1994, explained Lehman. "Over those 17 years, costs have gone up. "They just went right into the fact how wonderful the staff were," said Lehman, and added some said they wouldn't be able to live in their homes without the program. The only suggestion the clientele had for the program consisted of wanting to increase the service to include window washing. "Windows was a very big one, which I've known for a long time, but it's a very difficult one. "It's something that doesn't happen all the time, so it's not something that is a must to keep you in your own home," said Lehman. "And that's where we're coming from. "The fact that there is so many different types of windows. Maybe they're in a bigger house and it's got high windows. "What we do for one, we do for everybody. We're very flexible, but on the other hand, we're very consistent. "We won't do one and then tell the other one we can't do it, so that's one the reasons for no windows."
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