Window Cleaner Reflects On Twenty Year Career

Window washer reflects on 20-year career: With a squeegee in his right hand and an applicator in his left, Ben Appleton can clean a window in a matter of seconds.

Appleton, of Fulton, has been washing windows since he began working for Shepherd’s Company back in high school. He’s been with the company for about 20 years and now mostly oversees the window routes, though still washes from time to time.

Just as windows come in all shapes and sizes, so do the window washing jobs that come Appleton’s way. He has washed windows at small homes and businesses and has done jobs that require poles or lifts, such as the Columbia Public Library. He’s cleaned windows at the Faurot Field press box at the University of Missouri-Columbia. He’s also worked on the Lake Regional Health System in Osage Beach, which had about 2,000 windows to clean.

More on Ben, here.

Ben Appleton washes the windows of Aflac near Walnut and Eighth streets. Appleton has been washing windows for 20 years.

Superman Window Cleaner - USA's Fastest Squeegee

Ben Appleton washes the windows of Aflac near Walnut and Eighth streets on Tuesday. Appleton has been washing windows for 20 years. Click to enlarge.

Fulton window washer medals twice in major competition: COLUMBIA - Squeegee in hand, Ben Appleton takes a deep breath and begins. He scrapes, left to right and right to left, up and down the window. This should be a blur of man and window. After all, Appleton is the fastest window washer in the United States. His co-workers call him "Superman" because of his "jaw-dropping" speed. But watching Appleton in action is more a study in well-paced efficiency than blazing-hot speed. Cars aren’t slowing down in the parking lot so their drivers can stop and stare. Someone could hold up a sign - “Look, it’s the fastest window washer in the country!” - and people might not believe it.

Appleton has proof, though, in the form of two medals he almost sheepishly carted back from Florida in February. Appleton works at the Shepherd’s Co., a window-cleaning business in Fulton, and traveled to the International Window Cleaning Association’s annual conference in St. Pete Beach, Fla., Feb. 16-19. He had heard about the convention's contests a couple of weeks before, but he hadn’t given them too much thought. To many people, a window-washing competition might seem silly. To Appleton, it was kind of a big deal.

The speed and medley contests are the highlight of the convention, which is billed as an opportunity for window washers from around the world to network, learn about safety practices, get safety certified and browse new equipment. Believe it or not, window washers traveled to Florida from places like France and the Philippines to attend. And, judging by the crowd that comes out every year to cheer at the competition, most attendees would rather spend their time watching races than buying new buckets.

In the speed competition, where Appleton placed second, the contestants cleaned three 45-square-inch windows, each about the size of a square kitchen tabletop, in the least amount of time. In the medley, Appleton's third-place finish, participants cleaned windows of all shapes and sizes. In each competition, time was added for smudges. IWCA associate director Mandie Bannwarth said the techniques used in the contests are definitely a precise science.

The competitions themselves are shrouded in a layer of window-washing secrecy - if there is such a thing. They’re named for Jim Willingham and Rod Woodward, both deceased, who apparently contributed a great deal to the window-washing world. The IWCA's website credits Willingham with turning speed window cleaning into a sport, and Bannwarth said he is remembered both for his speed and for his somewhat controversial techniques - apparently he'd use too little water so removing it would take less time. There’s even a moment of silence before each competition in memory of these founders before the 15 or 20 contestants pick up their equipment and begin scraping like madmen.

Those moments of silence might have been somewhat compromised this year. Appleton, who didn’t decide to enter the competition until about two hours before it started, said the equipment arrived late. The contests were supposed to take place early in the evening, but the windows, the squeegees, everything - none of it was set up until about 10 p.m. This left audience members bored and anxious. Luckily, there was a nearby distraction. “You have to remember,” Appleton said. “These guys have been sitting, waiting for two hours for the windows to show up, and they’re in a conference room. And right out front of the conference room, there’s a bar.” It sounds like a bad joke. What do you get when you put a group of tipsy window washers in a room with a bunch of glass?

No one, not even Appleton himself, is positive why he was so reluctant to enter the contest. His co-worker Kara Welker said that from the first moment he heard about it, Appleton didn’t really want to compete. He's modest. He doesn't enjoy the spotlight. “I didn’t think he was going to," Welker said. "You really can’t talk him into doing something he doesn’t want to do.” And his last-minute decision to take up his squeegee, the one that led him into the spotlight of window-washing fame? It took him until he saw the other participants practicing. Judging their speed, he knew he had a chance.

Bannwarth said she doesn’t think many of the participants take the contest too seriously - except possibly the speed winner, Frank Lauret, who travels from France every year - but Appleton did seem to have a certain respect for the race. Somehow, he didn’t even crack a smile when describing the moments of silence.

It’s almost as if before he participated and before he saw the contests in person, Appleton didn’t think they were worth his attention. But now that he’s seen the laid-back atmosphere and realized no one’s moving at supersonic speed, the race has become a thing of gravity to him - sort of the opposite of what you’d expect.

“Now that I’ve done it, I think I can cut some time off," Appleton said. "I was 17.5 seconds for three windows. The French guy (Lauret) was 11.75. I think I can get better. Now that I’ve done it, I have it in my blood.” When Appleton returned to Missouri with his two medals - silver in speed and bronze in medley - he got a hero’s welcome. His co-workers, who have called him “Superman” for a long time, just saw the win as adding to the truth of that nickname.

Window washer works on door downtown: Ben Appleton washes the windows of Aflac near Walnut and Eighth streets on Tuesday. Appleton said he got into the window washing business because of his father.

TOP DRAWER: A listing of the honourable, noteworthy, new & what's ahead for business people in Columbia - Ben Appleton, commercial manager of Shepherd’s Co. of Fulton, won two medals at the International Window Cleaning Association Convention and Trade Show in St. Pete Beach, Fla. Appleton won a silver medal in the window speed cleaning competition and a bronze medal in the speed and quality competition. More than 30 contestants from five countries participated in the contest.

Window Cleaning News With Shepherd's, Ferrari's, Jim Beam & Pitted Glass

State drops complaints against Shepherd’s: The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations has dropped its two-year investigation of prevailing wage law complaints against the Shepherd’s Co. of Fulton, a faith-based construction company. Shepherd’s Co. also operates as a window cleaning firm and does business in Fulton, Jefferson City, Columbia, and the Lake of the Ozarks. It has more than 2,000 commercial and residential accounts in Central Missouri. The state agency has reached a non-monetary settlement with Shepherd’s Co. Under the settlement, the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations admits its long and costly investigation of the Fulton company failed to find any violations of state prevailing wage laws.
Tom Mahaney, Shepherd’s general manager, said last year the firm had expenses and lost business costs of at least $1.5 million that are associated with the state agency’s investigation of the firm. Scott Charton, a spokesman for Shepherd’s, said he believes total expenses for the firm, including costs associated with forming a new company and legal costs, eventually will total more than $2 million. The settling parties admit to no violations of state or federal law or authority in the agreement, Charton said. The settlement agreement provides that no notice of violation of Missouri’s prevailing wage or minimum wage laws will be made by the department on Shepherd’s projects that have been under investigation.
Shepherd’s Co. issued a statement saying that the “essential faith underpinning the Shepherd’s Company partnership has not changed, nor will it change. Shepherd’s Company is hopeful the settlement with the state satisfies any concerns or possible concerns that any public governmental bodies may have, or have expressed in the past. In the spirit of Christian forgiveness and fellowship, Shepherd’s is moving on, and looks forward to continuing its high quality service and workmanship for all clients, private, corporate and governmental.” Shepherd’s will continue operating as a partnership but will also form a separate corporation that will be used to bid on government contracts that are covered by state prevailing wage laws.
During the investigation, Labor Department Director Larry Rebman had written letters to Columbia Public Schools and the Missouri Department of Transportation telling them that the firm was the subject of a wage hour violation investigation. That prompted both government agencies to discontinue projects with Shepherd’s. After asking for extensive records from the firm, Shepherd’s Co. filed a federal lawsuit against Rebman and Carla Buschjost, director of the department’s Division of Labor Standards. In their federal lawsuit against the state agency, Shepherd’s Co. accused the state agency of  not providing due process to the company under the U.S. Constitution.
Based on unnamed complaints, the state agency began the investigation in 2009 that Shepherd’s Co. was outbidding union competitors. The state asked Shepherd’s to turn over virtually all of its financial records, customer lists, payroll records and numerous other documents. Shepherd’s fought the requests for a year and then turned the records over in 2010. It later filed the federal lawsuit against the state agency. Mark Comley, a Jefferson City attorney representing Shepherd’s Co., said Wednesday as part of the settlement he has dropped the federal lawsuit.
Comley said the company is now organized as a general partnership. Comley said as part of the settlement agreement, the firm will become a subchapter S corporation. “That will create a better paper trail for payroll and record keeping. Shepherd’s Co. has agreed to do this as part of the settlement,” Comley said. Shepherd’s Co. is operated by Shepherdsfield Community, a faith-based group that lives in a communal lifestyle. Members of the community voluntarily contribute their earnings to the community and they all share in proceeds from business ventures.
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Dragon slayer Tony Earnshaw driven by Ferrari fantasy: As a 12-year-old lad Tony Earnshaw was in the back of a police car waiting to be taken from his foster parents to a council care home when a Ferrari sports car flashed by. He told the officer: “I can’t wait to get one of those.” According to Tony the officer replied: “Son, where you are going, there is only one way to get one of those - you would have to steal it”. He said the words have has stayed with him ever since. Fast forward 13 years and he is on Dragons’ Den, the hit BBC TV programme for wannabe entrepreneurs - although more often, a graveyard for dreams. He and colleague Steve Pearson deliver a smooth presentation asking for £100,000 so they can take their commercial cleaning business nationwide.

On the panel was North East-based tycoon Duncan Bannatyne, who offers the full £100,000 for a 35% in the business, which they accept. A further 12 months on, with Duncan’s regular input, the company has won new contracts worth around £2m and the future is looking very bright for Tony. A far cry from when he walked into the council care home. He described how there were metal bars on the windows while in the pool room the cues were chained to the floor so they couldn’t be used as weapons in fights. Tony said: “Don’t get me wrong, the staff were very good and tried their best to make you feel at home. But at that age it is still the last place you want to be.”

Without naming names, he said one fellow resident at the time suffered a drug-related death while others have fallen into a life of crime. But Tony went a different way. He persuaded the man in charge of the care home in County Durham to let him go to Biddick Comprehensive School near his former family home in Washington, Tyne and Wear. As he had been bullied and taken into care after his single mum was taken into hospital, Tony was barely able to read or write but progressed rapidly. By 15, he had a milk round and his first taste of working life. At 16 he left school with eight GCSEs to go into sales by day, flipping burgers by night in his first business venture - a £50 fast- food trailer. With a brisk nightclub trade, he made £3,000 in a matter of months - then sold the business for £2,000. He bought a window-cleaning round for £300 which made him his money back in the first fortnight. Six months later, he sold that business for £6,000. Tony said: “I turned up to buy the round with an two big drums of water in a clapped-out old van which was like something out of Only Fools and Horses.“But my entrepreneurial spirit was really taking hold by then and I knew that I wanted to pursue my dream - and get that Ferrari. Despite all my problems I was always business-minded. “I told the window-cleaning business man I was going to build up the biggest cleaning company in the North East and he just laughed and said: ‘I will be watching you.’ But within six months I had my own depot, two vans and I was the biggest, taking £6,000-a-month.” He again sold that for a healthy profit, taking £16,000, before an HND in business helped him establish UK Commercial Cleaning Services in 2007. The company has expanded, now covering Newcastle, Sunderland, Teesside, Leeds and London, with franchises in the pipeline for Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.

The Dragons’ Den appearance helped him pick up the Institute of Directors North East Young Director of the Year Award. He now employs 40 staff, has a £200,000 house in Durham and a £30,000 Range Rover as he bides his time for that long-awaited Ferrari that cost between £140,000 and an eye popping £1.2m brand new. Probably in red,” he said. “I am not there yet, but I will get it,” said Tony, who is single, and whose mum Sandra, 42, is now well again and studying to be a chef while his younger brother Gavin, 21, is at university. “Just because I went into care did not mean that I was going to be a loser. I was there for two years and there were some bad boys who had been kicked out of mainstream school. Many may have ended up in prison, but by 14 I knew I had to change and stand on my own two feet. “Nobody was going to do that for me, but I did not want to go to jail. The key is ambition but problems in your past do not mean you cannot do something with your life. “Everyone is born the same way - there is no reason why you cannot achieve the same things.”

Residents claim bad propane ruined homes: Consumers, who had purchased what they believed to be a safe and reliable product, have discovered the hard way that may not always be the case. Bob Eskew and Linda Maxwell, Margie Southern Woodrum and Jackie and Shirley Jiles are among the growing list of local consumers who know the problems of dealing with propane gas allegedly contaminated by fluorine. Contaminated propane allegedly caused etching in the glass in their homes, but even worse are the health issues involved. Eskew and Woodrum have lost most of their vision. Both have undergone significant health concerns in the last few years, including ongoing respiratory problems and flu-like symptoms. For years they have unsuccessfully fought a battle to get the company responsible for the sale of the allegedly contaminated fuel, Green Country Propane Sales Inc., to pay for damages to their homes and medical expenses. Green County Propane purchased the propane from Coffeyville Resources and Refining and Marketing LLC of Kansas.

Pictured above: The window may look like a good washing would help, but Linda Maxwell tried washing the glass in picture frames and in the windows of her home, west of Sallisaw, to no avail. Maxwell claims glass and metal objects were pitted and etched by contaminated propane gas.

Too much Jim Beam in the Kitchen? Dan Kitchen withdraws from council appointment race: Whiskey apparently played a part in Dan Kitchen’s decision to throw his hat in the ring for a soon-to-be-vacated Aspen City Council seat, and the fact that he has too many good ideas is why he withdrew his application on Tuesday, Kitchen said. “They aren’t going to pick you,” said Kitchen, quoting the feedback he got from family and friends on his decision to pursue a temporary appointment to fill Councilman Dwayne Romero’s seat. “They said, ‘you’re a caveman, you have too many good ideas.’”
Kitchen jokingly admitted on Tuesday that when he considered serving in public office and subsequently submitted his application earlier this month, he had been drinking Jim Beam and wasn’t thinking clearly. Add that to his belief that since the planet is going to self-destruct anyway, Kitchen, 58, said traveling for the next year, and spending time with friends and family, sounds like a better plan. Besides, the window washer said he’d be too frustrated with the slow bureaucratic pace of government - noting that he first suggested bear-proof trash cans in 1992 and it took years for local governments to require them, and he’s been waiting for a solution to the entrance to Aspen for decades. 

He also said he wouldn’t be a good candidate because he’s technologically illiterate. “They’d have to have special meetings for me,” to follow along, Kitchen said. With Kitchen out of the running, there are eight Aspen residents vying for the two-month appointment. Romero will vacate the seat on Monday so he can take a job as Gov. John Hickenlooper’s economic development director.