My Plan for 2025: Wrapping up my Power Sweeping Career

by Ranger Kidwell-Ross, editor
WorldSweeper.com

The year 2025 marks my 37th in the power sweeping industry, where I have been dedicated to sharing educational information on, ahem, a sweeping range of topics. My journey began in 1988 when the Schwarze family purchased their first street sweeping company, Aaplex, Inc.

The Lows and Highlights: Over 20 years ago I attended the sweeper testing by the South Coast Air Quality Management District. This so-called 'Rule 1186/PM-10 Pickup Compliance' testing process was somewhat of a farce then and remains one today. To my knowledge, every type of sweeper tested managed to pass, which made the results meaningless. As a final project, I aim to create a more reliable sweeper test, one that will provide useful data. The tests are scheduled to be conducted this summer in the City of Santa Barbara.

One of my most enjoyable experiences was covering the filming of a 2002 television episode of Junkyard Wars, where two teams headed by a pro from Elgin and from Schwarze built sweepers from junkyard parts in an exciting competition. Another memorable event was organizing the first-ever Sweeper Roundup at the beautiful location American Sweeping's Gale Holsman provided in Kansas City, Missouri.

I have attended countless trade shows and events over the years, including many APWA Congress and National Pavement Expo gatherings. At the 2018 National Pavement Expo, I was honored to be the first person in the power sweeping industry to be designated as recipient of arguably the highest award in the U.S. pavement industry, the Alan Curtis Industry Service Award. That honor also included becoming a member of the PAVEMENT Hall of Fame.

Additionally, I was honored to win at least one APEX Award for Publication Excellence for a sweeping project each year for 30 straight years, from 1994 until I called it quits on entering the competition this year.

My 2001 travelogue, 'Sweeping Around the World – Asia, won an APEX, as did a similar blog of my 2002 sweeping travels in Australia. In 2016 I went back to Australia and then on to India to write about sweeping and both the Australia and India blogs won APEX Awards. In retrospect, the most rewarding of the 30 years of consecutive APEX Awards was the very rare 2006 Grand APEX Award for my blog called 'Sweeping Around the World – Europe.' Only 100 of those were awarded from the over 5,500 APEX entries received that year.

As I approach semi-retirement, I will most miss the conversations with members of the World Sweeping Association, which I founded in January of 2013. I have announced to WSA members that 2025 will be my last year leading the organization, though I hope someone will take over its future. Starting next month, I will also change this WorldSweeper e-newsletter from a monthly to a bi-monthly publication. This change is not because of a lack of topics to cover; rather, it should allow me to better explore other interests and enjoy some free time without such a strict schedule.

Throughout my career, I have accomplished everything independently, preferring to write and manage without a team. When I got my first computer, a Commodore 64, it had a cassette tape drive; later, though, I upgraded to something called a 'hard drive' that offered a whopping 20 megabytes of storage, which was an amazing change. By contrast, today the WorldSweeper website contains more than 70 gigabytes – over 70,000 times more than that fledgling hard drive.

When I sweep my new path into the sunset, I hope I'll have been able to source someone else to come forward to maintain, and continue to expand...

As always, if you have questions and/or 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.

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

1. The Only Constant is Change: WorldSweeper in 2025
2. Pollutant Removal Credits in Minnesota: The Sweeping Details
3. Care of Sweeper Hydraulics: What You Need to Know
4. EPA's 'Escaped Trash Risk Map' Might Spur Additional Street Sweeping Demand
5. Winter Ready: Essential Tips for Preparing Your Street Sweepers
6. Schwarze Welcomes Dan Federico as New Southeast Regional Sales Manager

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The Only Constant is Change: WorldSweeper in 2025

The WorldSweeper.com project was started by Ranger Kidwell-Ross in 2005. That October, he wrote the first WorldSweeper e-newsletter and then for the next five years published them quarterly. Starting in 2010, WorldSweeper has sent monthly e-newsletters to what is now about 3,000 subscribers throughout the U.S. and the world. Today, the WorldSweeper.com website archives a whopping 70+ gigabytes of copyrighted power sweeping information.

Since starting a quarterly newsletter for the Schwarze family in Spring of 1988 and then in the early 90s founding America's first printed magazine for power sweeping, American Sweeper, Ranger has written and/or published over 1,000 power sweeping articles; recorded more than a hundred audio interviews with contractors; conducted dozens of Zoomcast interviews; founded the World Sweeping Association 12 years ago; and, along the way garnered over two dozen APEX Awards for Publication Excellence – all to benefit the power sweeping industry.

We are announcing in this, our 198th e-newsletter, that next year the publication schedule at WorldSweeper is moving from monthly to bi-monthly. This will allow Ranger more outside time, as well as being able to better focus on his primary 'industry passion:' finding ways to expand the proof that power sweeping – especially air sweeping – is the world's 'first line of defense' when it comes to minimizing pavement-based pollution runoff.

Read any and all of WorldSweeper's previous newsletters.

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Pollutant Removal Credits in Minnesota: The Sweeping Details

Mike Trojan's more than three decade career has largely been as an investigator of the best ways to remove stormwater runoff pollution. That turns out to be via street sweeping, where credits for pollution removal are now being provided to municipalities in Minnesota.

These much coveted credits allow the cities to better meet the criteria for their respective stormwater permits. Minnesota's credit system is based on mass removed. Cities collect the material, weigh it, and measure the water content. Minnesota has established relationships between amount of phosphorus and nitrogen in the collected material and, based upon that information, provides much needed credits to the participating cities. The credit varies depending on the time of year.

This system effectively expands the use of street sweepers throughout the state since cities have recognized the return on investment increase caused by the crediting system.

Check out the article on how credits expand street sweeping.

Check out the article on sweeper hydraulics.

"Escaped trash" are materials like plastic cups and bags, paper products and other solid materials that have been littered intentionally or that have gotten into the environment because waste systems did not contain them securely. The Trash Free Waters program was created to address the significant problem of trash pollution in both urban and natural waterways.

In October of 2024 the EPA unveiled an 'Escaped Trash Risk Map' that estimates escaped trash density on land, along with the risk of it getting into waterways. The tool is designed to help local governments and communities identify areas with an estimated high-density of escaped trash so that increased street sweeping and other potential interventions can be evaluated for their usefulness in addressing the problem.

Read a PDF about EPA's effort to remove escaped trash and/or take a look at the Escaped Trash Risk Map.

Winter Ready: Essential Tips for Preparing Your Street Sweepers

It's crucial for municipalities and contractors to winterize their street sweepers to withstand harsh weather. Effective winterization helps ensure that sweepers stay operational and in peak condition, minimizing downtime and costly repairs.

If you haven't done all of the following to prepare your sweepers for the winter months, now would be a great time to do so. Bolstered by over 100 years of institutional experience Elgin techs know this stuff!

Check out what the Elgin team suggests you should do.

Schwarze Welcomes Dan Federico as New Southeast Regional Sales Manager

Schwarze Industries has announced that Dan Federico has joined Schwarze Industries as its new Southeast Regional Sales Manager. With over 20 years of experience in sales management and business development, Dan brings a notable track record within the sweeping industry.

In his new role, Dan will continue to drive market share growth for Schwarze in the Southeast, overseeing strategies to improve market reach and service delivery for our customers. His focus on channel management, team development, and long-term client relationships aligns with Schwarze goals.

Check out the rest of the press release.