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The copper and brass models made by Danny Downs are incredibly detailed. You'll want to check out his latest, a vintage Austin-Western sweeper. Ron Roberts' model for how and where to find good employees is also worth stealing a look at.

Our featured contractor for May is California-based Wells Sweeping. You might also want to check out our archive of previous Featured Contractor audio interviews. We also want to welcome a new banner advertiser to the home page, Sweeper Parts Xpress.

Noted purveyor of pre-owned sweepers, One.Seven, Inc., is donating a Broom Bear toward the cause of finding a cure for breast cancer. Read all about it, and find out how you can own this beautiful PR billboard for a great cause when it sells in mid-summer.

Emissions' regulations, this time targeting chassis engines, are again on the horizon in California. Our story, which documents both sides of the current proposal by the California Air Resources Board to outlaw the majority of street sweepers in use in the state by the end of 2010, brings to the forefront the value of sweepers in removing particulates.

An 'expert writer' for a popular web-based ezine has a poor opinion of the job that parking area sweepers provide. How would you rebut what he has to say in his article? (Byron Skaggs, principal with Kentucky-based contractor, BEJA Environmental, already has!)

We have a new 'Financing Tips' category. In addition to our One-Click Financing Program, it also contains an article on the 2008 Stimulus Package that radically increases your 1st year tax deduction on capital purchases -- like sweepers!

Fuel prices have never risen so much, so quickly. We're on it with two new articles on the topic. The first, for contractors, offers the insights of four of the top sweeping companies in the U.S. detailing their approach to enacting fuel surcharges to their customers.

Then, everyone who operates a fleet will want to read our collection of tips for conserving fuel.

We also have another new article designed to help you counter the talk of recession, entitled 'Five Ways to Keep Your Customers Coming Back for More.'

We now have online all of our NPE video interviews. Our final one is about the item voted Best New Product at NPE 2008. KCP Enterprises' 'Fast Measure' product makes it quicker and easier to measure pavement area.

We also have the fifth and final presentation from Uri Ben-Yashar's seminar, "Contractors Best Practices." This installment features moderator, Carl Barton, presenting on the topic 'Efficiency in Sweeping Routes and Other Areas.'

Recent industry news includes Tennant's announcement of its $68 million purchase of Applied Sweepers, maker of the Green Machine line of sweeping equipment. This will provide Tennant with access to the European market that the company doesn't currently have. Details are here on the Tennant website.

Have you taken a look at who won our annual Award of Excellence in Power Sweeping this year?

WorldSweeper.com's new 'One Click' Finance Program is now online and operational. If you want financing for your sweeper or other capital equipment, now you can get quotes from a number of lenders by filling out just one form. When vendors compete -- you win!

You will be able to access Roberts' latest files on an ongoing basis by clicking on the logo you see in the left side column of this page. We'll have a new article from him at least twice-a-month.

Finally, if you are a vendor to the sweeping industry and don't yet advertise here, please consider doing so with either a banner ad or a Sweeping Products listing. And, with as much traffic as this area gets, all contractors in America are missing a bet by not being in our Contractor Locator.

As you can see from the logo above the headline, we've added an RSS feed to the website. This is the latest way to keep up with news at your favorite sites on the Internet, including WorldSweeper.com. Adding the RSS feed also allowed us to add a regular web page that contains the latest articles we've added to the site.

Good Sweeping,

-- Ranger Kidwell-Ross, editor
First time here? Please read my introductory welcome message. Updated information is also periodically available at my blog, The Editor's Notebook.

GUESTBOOK If you haven't filled out our Guestbook, we can't send you late-breaking industry information. If you're involved with sweeping, please take time to provide us with your contact information. PARKING AREA SWEEPERS Here is our area dedicated to the needs of the parking area sweeping community. Check it out. You'll find a wide selection of news you can use in your business, right now, today. DISCUSSION FORUMS Discuss industry topics with others in sweeping. Our discussion forums offer a variety of topics, or make up your own. Plus, we have buy/sell classifieds for sweeping and sweeping-related equipment. (opens in new window) SWEEPER POSTCARDS What better way to show you're part of the industry than by including a sweeper photo, drawing or cartoon in your email? Our online postcards are great to use as industry-related thank you notes, all occasion greeting cards and to show others what a sweeper looks like now or in the past. Choose from sweeper-related cartoons, drawings, photos and toys. CONTRACTOR LOCATOR Do you offer sweeping or related services, or would you like to hire a sweeping contractor? If so, you'll want to check out our contractor locator section. (opens in new window)

WHAT'S NEW Here is where you'll find the latest stories we've posted online. You'll want to check often to find out the latest in industry news. STREET SWEEPING You'll find everything to do with street sweeping here. If that is the segment of the sweeping industry you are involved with, you'll want to check it out. SWEEPER SLIDESHOWS Want to see what sweepers used to be like? If so, you'll definitely want to check out our collection of old sweeper pictures. Some of the photos are even for sale, and what would look better on your office wall?! SWEEPING PRODUCTS Need to fix your sweeper, buy a new one or find the best deals and suppliers for sweeping-related products? As a way to show them you appreciate their support for this site, please do your shopping from manufacturers who support WorldSweeper.com. If you sell to the sweeping industry, be sure to sign up for your free or enhanced product listing! (opens in new window) SWEEPING AROUND THE WORLD Sweeping is a worldwide industry, but the techniques vary enormously depending upon where it's being done. We have a number of stories about how sweeping is done in various locations of the world, many from the award-winning online travelogues penned by our editor while traveling in Asia, Australia and Europe. You'll want to take a look.

FEATURED CONTRACTOR We're proud to feature this professional sweeping contractor on our home page. Wells Sweeping In the late 70s, guitar-playing Jay Wells kept seeing these odd-looking machines plying the pavement when he'd get done with gigs. His curiosity led him to meet the late Jack Rogers, inventor of single-engine sweeping. Before he knew it, Wells was a sweeping contractor. Today, Jay remains owner of Wells Sweeping, which does parking lot sweeping, as well as a variety of exterior maintenance work. He is also the managing partner of Wells Sweeping, LLC, which specializes in street and construction sweeping. In addition, Jay Wells is leading a current effort to gain a variance for sweepers with the California Air Resources Board. Our feature article on the company includes an approximately 30-minute audio interview with Wells, in which he discusses the early days of parking lot sweeping, what it takes to be successful in today's market, and the effort he's spearheading to gain a recognition through California's air quality agency about the overriding environmental benefits of sweeping. We will be changing our featured contractor about once per month. If you'd like your company to be considered for this honor, please let us know.

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PLEASE SUPPORT WORLDSWEEPER.COM

Unlike the former website I founded and operated at AmericanSweeper.com, this website totally relies on industry-wide support. The good news is the information we supply can be unquestionably independent. The downside is we must have the support of the sweeping community at large to keep it up-to-date and online.

Because of the relatively small size of the sweeping industry, we need financial support from all areas of sweeping: manufacturers, contractors and the other vendors and suppliers of power sweeping equipment. If you like what you see and value the site, please support it via the low cost enhanced listings in our Contractor Locator and Browse Sweeping Products sections.

If you would like to support the site through a donation of any amount via either PayPal or a credit card, just click on the donation link shown below.

If you would like more information, or to provide your input and ideas on the World Sweeper concept, please contact us via one of the methods shown in the left column of this page. We're trying to represent all viewpoints in the sweeping industry, so please feel free to let us know yours.

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry.

He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

-- Martin Luther King, Jr.