Covering the New, the Old and the Most Important

by Ranger Kidwell-Ross, editor
WorldSweeper.com

I have been honored with a unique invitation to be the drummer for the New Old Time Chautauqua, which was created over 30 years ago by the Flying Karamazov Brothers, Patch Adams and others. I will be joining them as headliners on a July tour of five Native American festivals being held on the Olympic Peninsula of my home Washington State. The tour started about the 10th of July and will run until near the end of the month.

For that reason – and since July is one of the busiest months in sweeping – this issue is primarily a reprise of some of the most important articles we have covered. In order to include all segments of the industry, I split them between ones primarily of interest to parking area contractors and, alternatively, to municipal sweeping professionals.

However, our opening article this month is Elgin Sweeper's current announcement that the company is now building its well-known Broom Badger model in-house rather than via contract with Odra Road Sweepers. This is the end chapter of the plan that was announced by the company in August of 2020. Time will tell how that change may affect either of those companies, or Merit Sweeprite, which has long made a very similar model.

I know it's hard to keep up with publication news these days, when it is available from so many disparate sources. So, if you missed any of the other articles I showcased for this edition when they were first brought out, I encourage you to take a look at them now. The two articles on sweeping's extraordinary ability to remove stormwater runoff pollutants both serve to 'move the needle' on the environmental value that street sweeping has now been proven to provide.

For contractors, we reprise two articles designed to help them find new and better ways to operate their businesses. The advice contained in each comes from a sweeping industry professional with many decades of experience. If you're a contractor and haven't yet read them, be sure you invest the time to do so now.

I included a link to our Tip Clipboard, which contains 135 good ideas for making your job more efficient and cost-effective. I'm sure you will agree it is a list that deserves your review at least yearly, if not more often.

Finally, it seemed like we should have at least one story from our ongoing 'Not Exactly Sweeping' series, and what better one to choose than what the street cleaners in Bangladesh were tasked with doing, what the U.K.'s Daily Mail called "perhaps the worst job in the world."

As always, if you have any news of potential interest to the power sweeping community, please let us know. Between this publication, the WorldSweeper.com website, and the World Sweeping Association, we'll be sure to get the information passed along to interested readers.

Good Sweeping,

Editor, WorldSweeper.com
Executive Director, World Sweeping Association
Member, PAVEMENT Hall of Fame

PS If you're a contractor I urge you to check out the many benefits of membership in the World Sweeping Association. Also, if you haven't 'liked' our WorldSweeper Facebook page, what are you waiting for? That's where we offer a variety of industry previews and updates on an ongoing basis.

---

July Newsletter Contents
(Scroll down to read stories or click on links below.)

1. Elgin Announces Introduction of New Broom Badger Model
2. Street Sweeping: America's Proven First Line of Defense for Stormwater Runoff Pollution Abatement
3. Long-Time Sweeping Company Manager, Rod Moore, Offers Great Business Tips for Contractors
4. How Long Since You've Reviewed the Sweeping Tips Now At WorldSweeper's 'Tip Clipboard?'
5. Groundbreaking: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to be Offering MS4 Rebates for Sweeping
6. Mark Schwarze On "Getting Your (Contractor) Ducks in a Row"
7. Not Exactly Sweeping: Street Cleaners Swim Neck Deep in Rubbish to Clean Bangladeshi Canals

Elgin Announces Introduction of New Broom Badger Model

The enhanced, Elgin-manufactured Broom Badger made its debut on June 24, 2022. The compact, highly maneuverable street sweeper is the latest in the lineup from Elgin Sweeper, a leading global manufacturer of street sweepers.

"The Broom Badger is ideal for municipalities and contractors who need reliable, robust cleaning from a compact street sweeper," said Tim Letts, Product Manager at Elgin Sweeper. "At Elgin Sweeper, we pride ourselves on going above and beyond industry standards. The upgraded Broom Badger not only provides efficient and reliable cleaning, but also is backed by our established, extensive network of dealers for the life of the sweeper."

Check out the new Elgin-built Broom Badger.

Street Sweeping: America's Proven First Line of Defense for Stormwater Runoff Pollution Abatement

Street sweeping has long been recognized as an effective best management practice (BMP), one that can reduce the amount of stormwater pollutants entering storm conveyance systems and receiving waters.

In this update first reported on in 2020, noted sweeper research professional, Roger Sutherland, teams up with WorldSweeper's Editor to recreate for the sweeping industry their 'StormCon 2020 Virtual' webinar presentation from August of that year. These individuals offer a combined 80 years of experience within the power sweeping arena and both have long been avid proponents of sweeping as the 'first line of defense' for keeping pollutants out of the runoff stream.

Over a span of more than three decades, each has conducted and/or reported on numerous street sweeping investigations and studies, as well as have written and/or edited an extensive number of articles on a wide range of street sweeping-related topics. Included is an overview article in addition to the 46-minute Zoom-based video presentation hosted on YouTube.

Take a look and learn firsthand about the important information.

Long-Time Sweeping Company Manager, Rod Moore, Offers Great Business Tips for Contractors

Awhile back our editor, Ranger Kidwell-Ross, found himself in Michigan near the location of WSA Advisory Board company, C&J Parking Lot Sweeping. While there, Ranger had an opportunity to ride along with Rod Moore, C&J's General Manager.

During their afternoon together visiting customers, Ranger asked Rod to talk about the business concepts he felt had made the company so successful over its more than 40 years of operation. What Rod has to say about the concept of providing outstanding customer service is food for thought for most any type of service business. Use the link shown below to check out the resulting 17-minute video compilation (will open into a new browser window).

Editor's Note: While Rod's information is as valid today as when we first reported it, since that time C&J has been sold to Sweeping Corporation of America and Moore is no longer with the organization.

Watch what Rod Moore has to say about professionalism.

The WorldSweeper website offers to our power sweeping industry readers a total of 135 different tips. These are valuable ideas for a variety of ways to make your sweeping operation run smoother and better, no matter if yours is a municipality or a sweeping contracting company.

Even if you've seen this extensive web page before, we believe you'll find the information to be worthy of your re-review. There are many pro tips on how to make all aspects of a sweeping operation better.

Groundbreaking: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency to be Offering MS4 Rebates for Sweeping

This article, which includes a link to the Minnesota Stormwater Manual's Wiki website, provides information on the importance and value of street sweeping for controlling nutrient loading to receiving waters; an overview of a new street sweeping crediting tool for phosphorus; a discussion of street sweeping guidance; and, a discussion of additional research needs.

All of that information serves as the basis for a crediting system under stormwater regulations. That is to say, Minnesota cities now have a workable system of developing a formula that – easily and inexpensively – derives an amount of credit they will receive for street sweeping under the state's stormwater regulations. MS4 cities in Minnesota can now claim the credits under their MS4 permits and can use that for demonstrating their progress toward meeting their TMDL requirements.

Check out the valuable info and game changing results.

Mark Schwarze On "Getting Your (Contractor) Ducks in a Row"

Mark Schwarze began in the sweeping business more than half a century ago at the age of seven. His father, Bob Schwarze (the founder of Schwarze Industries, Inc., now owned by Alamo Group) put him to work with a push broom to get all the sidewalk debris into the curbline so the company's 'albatross' sweeper – a mechanical broom unit called an 'MB Cruiser' that swept via a PTO – could pick it up. Mark went on to become President of Schwarze Industries and is now Product Development Manager and Marketing Director for Victory Sweepers.

In this essay, Schwarze talks about the pitfalls he's seen contractors fall into during his many years in the sweeping industry. He also provides a number of ideas for how to run a contracting business more successfully.

Check out what Mark Schwarze has to say.

Not Exactly Sweeping: Street Cleaners Swim Neck Deep in Rubbish to Clean Bangladeshi Canals

The Dhaleshwari, Bangshi and Turag rivers and canals under municipal jurisdiction have been polluted by rubbish for years. Municipal cleaners have dumped domestic, plastic, medical, industrial and e-wastes at 50 spots mostly on, or feeding into, canals and rivers.

In a landmark verdict, the Bangladeshi High Court declared all rivers in the country to have the same legal status as a human being. Since then, municipal officials have removed at least 200 tons of waste daily.

The street cleaners tasked with the cleanup have one of the worst jobs in the world as they swim neck deep in rivers of rubbish to help clean Bangladeshi canals. The extraordinary photographs in this article by the U.K.'s Daily Mail shows volunteers cleaning up the riverbanks surrounding a canal in Savar, Dhaka. The water used to be a canal before heaps of urban waste made a land mass in the region, located 24 kilometers to the northwest of Bangladesh's capital.

Take a look at what the U.K.'s Daily Mail termed "perhaps the worst job in the world."