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New water cleaning technology

WATER engineers have been blown away by the success of a new technology that cleans water mains from the inside using a whirlwind of air.

The workers from Yorkshire Water have used the technology to clean more than 126 miles of iron pipes throughout 2008, blasting away the build-up of deposits that can lead to poor water quality and low pressure in the mains.

The Whirlwind Phantom cleaning machine looks a little like a road-sweeper and can clean pipes up to 12 inches in diameter prior to lining.

The technique is similar to sand-blasting and can clean up to 200 metres of water main in an hour, reducing supply interruptions to customers and avoiding water waste.

It has now largely replaced the traditional scraping technique, where a mechanical rack is dragged through...

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City of Washington seeking street sweeper

Notice is hereby given that the Board of Public Works and Safety of the City of Washington, Indiana, will receive bids until 4:00 p.m. on January 12, 2009, in the City Clerk-Treasurer’s office. Said bids will then be publicly opened and read at 6:30 p.m. during the regularly scheduled Common Council meeting held in the Council Chambers at the Firehouse/Municipal Building for the following:

One 4-Cubic Yard Regenerative Air Sweeper for the City of Washington Stormwater Department

Bids will be accepted by the Clerk-Treasurer, 101 N.E. 3rd Street, City Hall, Washington, Indiana 47501, until the hours specified on the above date. The Board of Public Works and Safety of said city reserves the right to reject any and all bids submitted, or accept the bids most advantageous to the city. Convenience and speed of service will also...

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Garbage catches fire

As Hickory's Solid Waste Manager John Yvars looked over the 2.5-ton heap of smoldering garbage his driver had dumped in a parking lot, he said, "He did exactly what he should have done in this situation — he saved a $200,000 truck by dumping its load."

At about 11 a.m. Wednesday, Keith Lewis was more than halfway through his rounds when he noticed smoke billowing from his truck. So Lewis drove to the parking lot behind 610 Fourth St., SW, and dumped the truck's contents. The Hickory Fire Department responded and soaked the trash and extinguished the fire.

The fire appears to have been ignited by something hot put into a curbside rollout container that was dumped into the truck.

"People have to be careful about what they throw into the garbage," Yvars said. "This isn't the first time this has happened."

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Focus on Equipment Theft Recovery

For many contractors, equipment theft is what drives them to explore equipment tracking technology. According to the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), roughly $1 billion in construction equipment is stolen annually. And a 2008 Cygnus Research study commissioned by LoJack and the NICB showed the majority of equipment owners surveyed (71%) had been a victim of theft, with 29% experiencing five or more incidents. Only 38% of the stolen equipment was recovered, with 70% incurring damages of $5,000 or more.

"There are many hidden costs that go beyond the price tag of replacing equipment," adds Bob DeAngelis, senior director, LoJack Commercial Division, "such as business downtime, increased insurance premiums and increased operating costs, to name a few."

If theft is an overriding concern, a single-function equipment tracking system, designed strictly for...

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City to pursue municipal waste collection

Bay City Council decided to get financing totaling $5 million for two areas of capital improvements to establish a waste-collection system and to meet other capital needs throughout Bay City.

Council Thursday night also hired Jim Gilley of Coastal Securities - a Houston-based investment banking and brokerage firm - to seek financing options for the two capital initiatives that each will cost $2.5 million.

Mayor Richard Knapik said the city's bond rating should attract financing for the projects.

The city's debt on sewer bonds issued in the 1990s will be paid in 2011, while the street improvements bonds will be retired by 2013.

"That will free up a lot of money we've been paying," the mayor said.

Council focused on a city-run waste collection system and the broad range of other...

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More manufacturing job cuts

A squeeze on credit is being blamed for the possible loss of 20 jobs at a Kent manufacturing firm.

Scarab Sweepers of Marden, a company with an international reputation for its road sweeping vehicles and other equipment, hopes the cost-cutting move will be achieved through voluntary redundancy or early retirement.

The firm says compulsory layoffs will only be a last resort if not enough volunteers are found from the 240-strong workforce.

Last year, Scarab posted sales of £30m, half of it from overseas clients. But this year, despite strong demand, especially from public sector clients, turnover is expected to be lower.

John Affleck, managing director, blamed the situation on a lack of finance available to clients.

He said overseas demand was holding up well, especially in France. The main problems were in the UK where in spite of an injection of billions of pounds from the taxpayer, banks were still failing to expand lending.

Mr Affleck said that the company was looking at various ways of cutting costs and was at a very early stage in its...

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Volvo & AEBI Schmidt FL-240/SK600

Volvo Trucks, through its Dealer Volvo Truck and Bus Centre East Anglia, has co-operated with the market leaders in sweeping technology, Aebi Schmidt UK, to create a state-of-the art demonstrator vehicle. The specially-adapted Volvo FL-240 is equipped with an Aebi Schmidt SK600 sweeper unit and is already in high demand with a wide range of potential users.

“The Aebi Schmidt SK600 demonstration vehicle is designed to improve the environment by removing litter and debris – and we are delighted that Volvo is supplying a chassis and powerful, efficient, low emission, high performance diesel engine,” says Henk Landeweerd, Managing Director of Aebi Schmidt UK. “The Volvo Euro 4 engine complements the industry-leading benefits of the SK600 as a rugged and powerful workhorse.”

“We’re delighted to be co-operating with Aebi Schmidt UK,” comments Neil Crouchman, New Truck Sales Executive with Volvo Truck and Bus Centre East Anglia. “They’re recognised as one of the leaders in this field and, like Volvo, they see customer satisfaction as their number one priority. In partnership with them, I’m confident that we can fulfil the needs – in terms of specification, quality and Dealer support – of any customer. We’re looking forward to talking to those customers and working with Schmidt to meet and exceed their requirements.”

The base vehicle is Volvo’s factory road sweeper package, a specially-prepared 4x2 chassis which includes a rear-mounted fuel tank and the relocation of AdBlue reservoir, air tanks and exhaust to the area just behind the cab. It has a 3.5m wheelbase and steel rear suspension. The six-speed manual gearbox is that recommended by Volvo’s Warwick Technical team, who were closely involved in specifying the vehicle; its comparatively short ratios make it ideal for sweeping. The day cab is laid out for left-hand drive and features a...

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Airport wins grant for runway sweeper

The Columbia Regional Airport will receive $171,000 in federal grant money to replace an old runway sweeper.

The money comes through the Federal Aviation Administration’s Airport Improvement Program, Columbia Public Works Spokeswoman Jill Stedem said. The airport makes annual requests for money through this program.

Funds for the grant come from taxes on airline tickets, aircraft fuel and international departures, and grant money is used for infrastructure and maintenance, according to a news release from Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo.

The runway sweeper is similar to a street sweeper, Stedem said, adding that the airport’s sweeper was outdated and...

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Silence Noise Pollution

Ah, the tranquillity of small-town Vermont! That is, if you don't count the ear-splitting whir of the street-sweeper truck that crept up and down the street outside of Les Blomberg's home in Montpelier three times a week at 4 a.m. The noise—described by Blomberg as "loud as a NASCAR racecar but at a speed of 5 miles per hour"—riled him so much that he turned activist to persuade the city to reschedule street sweeping to begin at 6 a.m. He also founded the nonprofit Noise Pollution Clearinghouse, an organization that provides research and information to others whose pleas for quiet might otherwise fall on deaf ears.

Hearing loss, in fact, is the most obvious medical consequence of noise pollution, but it is hardly the only one, explains environmental psychologist Arline Bronzaft. In her research, Bronzaft found that constant noise exposure can impede children's learning ability and cognitive development. And beyond all that, periodically, "you've got to take a break from sound," says Bronzaft. "We need some serenity in our lives."

The bad news, says Blomberg, is that "the last century was the noisiest in the history of the world, the fossil fuel era of noise." The good news, he continues, is that...

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Concerned about noise pollution?

Reduce your sound output by 73% with the Schwarze WhisperWheel sweeping system.
Although there is no noticeable external difference, the highly engineered blower fan, fan housing and airflow design have all been modified. From around the United States, those who have used the system are enthusiastic in their reports on the Schwarze-exclusive design...



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A Street Sweeper's Tale

There is a man, his name is Bruiser. Bruiser had a job as a street sweeper. These are his stories. And what are these stories you may ask? Well that can be answered in one word, Epic....

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Local city leaders discuss state aid

Suddenly, there’s a little less Christmas cheer in municipal offices across northwestern Minnesota.

Warren was hoping for a shiny new ambulance, Fisher a new snowplow. In Crookston, the police department wanted better cameras in patrol cars, while Stephen’s wish list included a street sweeper.

East Grand Forks is facing a bleaker holiday season, too, with a one-time budget gap that could approach $345,000.

State leaders looking to cover a $426 million deficit in the current biennium are considering “unallotment” of millions of dollars in state aid promised to local governments — money that was to be sent to municipalities Dec. 26 and which already has been budgeted or even spent.

In a city-by-city analysis of the potential impact, the Minnesota League of Cities warned Tuesday that Warren could lose between $9,500 and $50,400 of the Local Government Aid it’s been counting on receiving Dec. 26....

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Toyota suspends work on new U.S. plant

DETROIT - Toyota Motor Corp is suspending completion of its newest plant in Mississippi indefinitely in response to a "steep decline" in U.S. industrywide auto sales, the automaker said on Monday.

The plant near Tupelo, Mississippi -- Toyota's eighth assembly plant in North America -- was slated to produce Prius hybrids beginning in late 2010.

The latest move by Toyota, No. 2 in U.S. auto sales after General Motors Corp, underscores the pressure across the industry, as U.S. auto sales have slumped to their lowest levels in 25 years amid weak consumer confidence and tight credit.

The White House is considering emergency funding for GM, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC, which have been pushed to the brink of failure, after U.S. Senate Republicans rejected a $14 billion bailout last week.

"Due to the uncertainty of the market, it is impossible to say at this time when production will begin," Toyota said in a statement.

"Toyota continues to evaluate its operations globally and reduce production as necessary to match the weak market."

Toyota had already...

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Wind damage relatively small

Tammi Marcus with the Public Works Department said Monday morning, residents in western Clovis — La Salle Drive and Purdue Street were particularly hard hit — were reporting high amounts of tumbleweed covering homes and streets.

Downtown, shingles were blown off a building in the area of Fourth and Mitchell Streets, and there were a lot of calls for street sweeper service, she said, but there was no major damage reported.

Lori Crump and her family found themselves stuck in their house in the 1000 block of Purdue Street Sunday by mounds of tumbleweeds...

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How Does Holiday Spending Look This Year?

How does holiday spending look this year? What effect will decreased holiday spending have on the economy? And how can we reinvigorate consumer spending?

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Nilfisk sets sights on expansion

After developing the re-usable shopping bag, Bag for Life, in response to the government’s plastic bag levy, David Jordan joined Nilfisk Ireland and shifted his focus from shopping bags to vacuum cleaners.

Danish firm Nilfisk celebrated its 50thyear in Ireland last year and the vacuum cleaner manufacturer has aggressive expansion plans for Ireland in 2009. ‘‘We’ve a well-established name here,” said national sales manager Jordan. ‘‘We cater for all markets, from the apartment owner to the five-bedroom houseowner and commercial cleaning in hospitals and airports.”

Half of Nilfisk Ireland’s turnover is related to commercial products - globally the majority of sales are commercial. ‘‘We’re a popular brand here on the consumer side. We’re known for our household vacuum cleaners, which represents 50 per cent of sales, while in other countries it’s only 10 per cent.”

Nilfisk was set up 102 years ago by Fisker and Nilsen, and the firm plans to double its €800 million turnover globally in the next four years. Jordan said the recession had sparked a renewed interest in the cylindrical vacuum cleaner, popular in the 1980s. In these recessionary times, people are...

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Growth in composting cuts amount of leaves

EXETER'S massive leaf-clearing operation is coming to an end for another year.

The weight of leaves collected this year is expected to exceed 400 tonnes — enough to fill around 300 large road-sweeping lorries.

Or, put another way, enough leaves to fill 6,500 household wheelie bins.

The weight collected is slightly down on last year and about 200 tonnes down on the year before last.

According to Mike Trim, the city's head of cleansing services, the weather is the likely culprit for the decrease in weight.

Mr Trim said: "The 600 tonnes we collected two years ago was an all-time high.

"It is difficult to say what has caused the drop but I suspect it is the high winds that we have been having which have been blowing the leaves away.

"Also, the wind dries the leaves making them that bit lighter.

"Although, when the lorries get to the weigh station, we do squeeze as much water out of them as we can before they are weighed if they have been damp when they were swept up.

"Another factor is that more people are now home composting. By the end of October, we had hired out more than 6,000 brown bins."

Some councils around the country allow...

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Letter: Snow removal

An article in The Topeka Capital-Journal reported that city spokesman David Bevens said residents could be fined for pushing leaves or snow into the street.

I imagine some residents do rake or blow leaves into their streets, knowing that the street sweeper will clean them up. I would not do that because the street sweeper does not have our court on his map. Same would be true for snow removal. If I were to blow snow into the court, it would just lie there on top of whatever snowfall had accumulated.
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Can the city street department be fined for not removing snow? On second thought, maybe it is better if the snow is not removed. That way, the streets would be smoother because the potholes would be filled.

Apparently, there is a city ordinance stating that...

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Humdrum fuels madness in Festival winner

The Australian film "Streetsweeper" creates for itself a difficult challenge. It must hold our attention through a character who lives within his head and does not truly engage anyone else. Not that there are many others in the movie for Keith, the street sweeper, to interact with -- a handful of passersby who show even less interest in him than he does in them, and that's it.

Once we get the general idea that the homeless man is in his own world, reciting to himself bits of poetry, lines scrawled on notes he finds in the street, memories from a wretched childhood; once we fall into the easy rhythm of Keith pushing his broom cart through the margins and empty corners of the tidy, humdrum city, it isn't long before we're bored.

Keith's growing disconnection with the world around him -- or you could say his growing failure to process the implosion of the world taking place in his head -- lead to a somewhat predictable climax. This is an outburst of magnificently expressed rage, a torrent of bitter poetry whose principal target seems to be the comfortable suburbs that Keith goes through the motions of...

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Season's First Nor'Easter Hits Vermont

South Burlington, Vermont

As the snow started to fall on Thursday night, plows in Burlington were lined up at Public Works headquarters, ready to hit the roads once the white stuff started piling up.

"This is not an unusual storm so we're just in our normal mode of operation," said Steve Goodkind of the Burlington Public Works Department. Crews are on standby to switch to 12-hour shifts if necessary. Goodkind says there is nothing tricky about the first big snowfall of the season, except when it comes to clearing sidewalks.

"It's really different for the sidewalk tractors," he said. "When there's no snow on the ground and you get, say, two or three inches down, it's very hard to see where you're going to find the concrete path through the city, so that's hard."

At the Burlington Airport, signs of the impending storm could already be seen in the late evening as flights coming and going to other cities were canceled or delayed. However, operations crews say the fact that much of the snow will fall overnight means Burlington shouldn't have any problems; very few flights come in overnight, so plows have uninterrupted access to the runways.

"A storm like this really...

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A sweet parade

Purcell, Ok -- A sparkling array of lights moved up Main Street during the 20th annual Christmas Light Parade.

What a spectacular parade, if you were able to ignore the cold. There were more participants than ever this year. The parade was one of the best ever.
I am always taking photos and when doing that, I do not have the ability to really look at the floats.

Before the parade, I ran into some of the Purcell firefighters. In a matter of three to four hours they were able to put together the most interesting and adorable float. No, it was the firefighters, and not their wives who put together the winning float.

Following the parade, the city street crew started cleaning up the candy. The street sweeper was used, but workers went back early Friday to do another cleanup.

One of the crew said the candy was so thick in the 100 block that the smashed sweet stuff was almost impossible to get off the street....

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New Funding on the Way?

On Saturday, president-elect Obama announced an economic stimulus plan intended to create jobs and improve the country’s infrastructure. Calling it the biggest new investment in national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s, he said the plan will create or preserve nearly 2 million jobs while improving roads, school buildings, and other structures and making many buildings more energy efficient. The plan was announced shortly after the news that the US lost more than half a million jobs in November.

So far, state transportation officials have come up with about 5,000 infrastructure projects that will be ready to start soon; these are mainly repairs and upgrades to roads and bridges. I don’t know exactly how future projects will be chosen or prioritized for funding, but, if the new administration is looking at all the available data, this might be just the kind of thing that makes you wish you’d filled out the Clean Watershed Needs Survey.

Improving the infrastructure is a better place than most to spend the money. The American Society of Civil Engineers has been warning for years of the dire state of many systems, from water to transportation to...

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Canada strike may affect Erie airport

A strike at a Canadian potash mine might mean more delayed or canceled flights at cold-weather airports like Erie's as this winter wears on.

Potash is an ingredient in potassium acetate -- the material that airports use to melt snow and ice on their runways -- and the FAA has warned airports of an impending shortage.

"We rely on that quite a bit, especially if we have freezing rain or hard pack ice," said Rick Robie, operations foreman at Erie International Airport.

The local airport has enough of the material for now, and hopes the FAA will approve a more cost-effective substitute.

In an Oct. 29 memo to airports, the FAA said the company -- Iowa-based Cryotech Deicing Technology -- made 9 million gallons of the de-icer for airports in the winter of 2007-08, but will only be able to supply 3 million gallons this winter.

The FAA said all...

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3 to 4 inch snow possible

Augusta, Kan. - Tuesday’s snowfall was expected to be the first battle of the season for Augusta’s winter treatment of streets to reduce driving hazards.
A snow accumulation of around 3 to 4 inches was possible for our area. A Winter Advisory was in until 6 p.m. Tuesday evening.

Public Works Director Cy Ricker offers the following to inform residents.
The snow and ice removal policy of The City of Augusta is to provide safe travel for all residents and others using our streets and parking lots.
All primary arterial streets and school zone streets will be pre-treated with brine water before storms arrive to prevent icing conditions on roadways.
The application of sand/salt mixture will commence when the streets and parking lots become slick to cars and pedestrians.

The street department will monitor the conditions by on-site inspection of conditions by city personnel.

Sanding will be done from the onset of hazardous conditions to a...

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Cummins Tier 4 Wins Award for Design Leadership

COLUMBUS, IN - Cummins Inc. Tier 4 QSB6.7 engine with integrated air intake to exhaust aftertreatment technology has won a gold award for design leadership in the LLEAP 2008 awards, taking first place in the systems category. A double award success has been achieved by Cummins with the new Direct Flow air filter on the QSB6.7 recognized with a silver award in the LLEAP innovative components category.

The award-winning 6.7-liter QSB engine incorporating the Direct Flow engine air filter and Cummins Particulate Filter exhaust aftertreatment was revealed at the CONEXPO show held in Las Vegas in March this year. The QSB6.7 captured industry attention as the first fully integrated system shown ready to meet U.S. EPA Tier 4 Interim and European Stage IIIB off-highway low-emissions regulations taking effect in January 2011.

A performance-enhancing High Pressure Common Rail fuel system and Variable Geometry Turbocharger enable the Tier 4 QSB6.7 to increase top-rated power to 300 hp (224 kW), representing a power output more typical of a larger-displacement engine. Cleaner, more efficient combustion reduces fuel consumption by up to 5 percent, dependent on rating. The Direct Flow air filter improves air flow efficiency and dust protection for the engine.

Held annually, the LLEAP awards (Leadership in Lifting Equipment and Aerial Platforms) are sponsored by...

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Another Airport Buys a Schwarze Sweeper

Another Australian airport has selected a Schwarze sweeper for the important task of keeping the area safe and clean. Launceston Airport in Tasmania recently ordered a Schwarze A6500XL, mounted on Isuzu FSR 850 chassis.

Launceston has joined Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Melbourne and Canberra as Schwarze customers. These airports operate an airport version of the normal A6500XL street sweeper that has been modified to cater for the particular needs of an airport. The wide sweep path, fast sweeping speed, low operating costs and reliability have made Schwarze the preferred choice of Australia’s major airports.

Schwarze also manufactures a high speed runway sweeper that conforms to international and NATO standards as well as stringent requirements of Australian Defence Force. The RAAF has 18 high speed sweepers around Australia and they have been specially built to be transported by C 130 aircraft.

Other high speed runway sweepers are...

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Poor to be hit by higher rates on personal loans

Poorer families, cash-strapped pensioners and those with a black mark on their credit record face higher interest rates of up to 19.9 per cent on personal loans.

The details emerged yesterday as Britain's biggest building society, the Nationwide, introduced a system of risk-based pricing.

The company is dropping the simple system where interest rates are based on the size of the loan rather than the credit history of the customer.

Currently, a City banker or a council street cleaner are charged the same headline rate on a personal loan from Nationwide. In future, those on...

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Rebuild process set to begin

POCOMOKE CITY -- City officials are set to begin the process of rebuilding the Public Works maintenance facility destroyed by a fire in early October.

At the mayor and council meeting Monday night, officials will authorize the city manager to solicit proposals for the design and construction of a new building.

The Young Street facility garage is used to house city maintenance equipment, such a street cleaners, lawn mowers and other hand tools. What was left of the structure has been demolished since the early morning arson that destroyed both the garage, a small office, and everything inside.

Town officials are expected to...

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Schwarze Broom Sweeper Redesign

The Schwarze M6000 Mechanical Street Sweeper has recently undergone a re-design of the hydraulic, electrical, and dust control systems providing a more end-user friendly product. With the utilization of Canbus electronics the M6000 has taken the step towards being the leader of street sweeper technology and end-user dependability. For maximum flexibility, the M6000 is available in both single (SE) and dual engine (TE) configurations as well as on conventional or cab-over chassis designed for both diesel or alternative fuels such as CNG or LPG.

This sweeper is Rule 1186 certified and is very easy to operate. The Schwarze M6000 sweeper is ...

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£10K 'jigsaw puzzle' found in bin

For those of a patient disposition, there is something quite satisfying about completing a complex jigsaw.

But for binman Graham Hill, who found £10,000 in cut-up banknotes, the challenge and the reward are considerably higher.

The Bank of England has told him that if he can put the notes back together, he can keep the cash.

However the money is shredded into so many fragments experts estimate that the task could take three months of painstaking work.

Mr Hill, 43, found himself with the ultimate jigsaw when he discovered a carrier bag stuffed with cut £10 and £20 notes while he was emptying litter bins in Lincoln town centre.

He handed the bag to police but officers have been unable to link the stash to any crime. They have now...

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Related articles: Street cleaner finds $20,000 shredded

A “Bullet-proof” Industry

Contractors at the NPE West were overwhelmingly content with their 2008 season. “We have a bullet-proof industry”, one contractor said. The paving and pavement maintenance market seems to be “recession resistant” and the 2008 year supports that idea. Property managers who could afford to pave, paved. Those who couldn’t afford it (as HMA costs climbed all summer) shifted many of their dollars to maintenance — and many of the contractors were the beneficiaries of that shift.

Almost all contractors said their 2008 was equal to or better than their 2007, though many admitted their margins were a little tighter...

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Get Rid of That Yard Waste, The Right Way

With the approach of the winter wet weather, yard waste in the drains can cause serious problems.

Erick Woodruff, Public Works Director, "Leaves present a big problem. They actually clog up the drains and don't allow the free flowing water to get the direction it needs to flow in."

Jonesboro doesn't have vacuum trucks but they have street sweepers. Can't these handle all our yard waste?

Woodruff, "You know with the street sweeper what it's designed to do is pick up minor debris, minor leaves and roadside debris as well. If you raked out your yard and put on the side of the road, this isn't a sucking device this is a cleaning device."

So keep them off the streets, out...

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Car Slams Into Street Cleaner; Woman Hurt

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A 22-year-old Winter Park woman suffered critical injuries when the car she was driving crashed into the rear of a street cleaner, according to the Florida Highway Patrol.

Jessica Meek was transported to Orlando Regional Medical Center after the collision, which took place at about 1:15 a.m. on state Road 436 near Old Cheney Highway in Orange County.

According to the FHP, Meek's vehicle was traveling northbound on state Road 436 in the left lane and failed to slow down, strking the rear of the street cleaner.

Meek was not wearing a seatbelt, according to an FHP report....

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Small Businesses' Access to Capital Improved

In response to the credit crunch, SBA's Acting Administrator Sandy K. Baruah announces important loan program changes to help the agency's lending partners increase access to capital for small businesses.

First, an interim final rule allowing new SBA loans to be made with an alternative base interest rate, the one month LIBOR rate (London Interbank Offered Rate), in addition to the prime rate, which was previously allowed. In the past 60 days, both the prime and LIBOR rates have not yet returned to their historical relationship-of roughly 300 basis points between the two rates. The mismatch between the rates is squeezing SBA lenders out of the lending market, since their costs are based on the LIBOR rate.

"This change will help more small businesses obtain capital to grow their businesses and create new jobs," Baruah says. "By allowing both rates, SBA is making its programs more flexible, increasing opportunities to access capital and giving...

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8 Lawn Rakes Turn Over a New Leaf With Unique Designs

As the leaves began to fall, the excitement and wonder of watching them change color faded fast. The lawn is now carpeted in a thick layer of leaves, and once again we're facing our annual autumn challenge: finding the fastest, easiest way to collect all those leaves before they're covered with snow. If you're facing a similar dilemma, consider one of these eight leaf busters...

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Intuit goes global using mobiles

QuickBooks small business accounting software runs the back office for many of North America's 31 million small businesses. Now Intuit plans to expand globally by targeting 10 Asian countries, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea. Collectively, these 10 Asian countries have 250 million small businesses.

You won't see many notebook computers in the street stalls of Jakarta. Yet even a street sweeper has a mobile phone. So Intuit plans to grow globally by developing mobile-based versions of QuickBooks at its Global Business Division office, based in Mississauga, Canada.

I toured Intuit's new Global Business office, located just west of Toronto, at its recent official opening. The building is equipped with the typical Intuit employee-friendly furnishings, including nap rooms and a yoga studio. An HD teleconferencing suite will cut down on the need for 20-hour long trans-Pacific flights to consult with employees based overseas. About 40 work here now, but eventually more than 250 will call the...

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DSNY Street Sweeper

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Plant Expansion for Wayne Sweepers

Wayne Sweepers recently moved its headquarters and manufacturing operations to Cedar Falls, Iowa, to join sister company Wayne Engineering where both firms will share engineering and manufacturing resources. Wayne Sweepers produces a line of highly automated street sweepers for use on streets and parking lots as well as for road maintenance and millings clean-up.

Wayne Engineering is a major manufacturer of refuse bodies used in manual and automated collection of solid waste. Both companies sell to private contractors and municipal public works departments throughout the U.S. and Canada. In some territories, both companies share the same dealer organizations, resulting in better market penetration and stronger customer support. Both firms are divisions of Wayne Industrial Holdings, and now under the management leadership of Kevin Watje, president and CEO.

According to Watje, “This is an absolutely...

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Schwarze M6000 Street Sweeper

Schwarze M6000 Street Sweeper @ Yahoo! Video

Buffalo County OKs sweeper purchase

The Buffalo County board approved the purchase of a street sweeper, even though the deal to buy it might have violated county purchasing policy rules.

The county bought a sweeper for $37,829 in December 2007, and it was delivered in February. But after using the new sweeper for about 100 hours, the highway department had quality concerns and negotiated a no-cost return agreement with the dealer, Aring Equipment Co.
The potential violation came when the new sweeper was ordered with a couple of new options costing $755 more than...

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Council foresees tight 2009 budget

While borough department heads polished their wish lists, the dour economic outlook for 2009 crept into a preliminary discussion of the capital budget priorities as the Borough Council met Monday, Nov. 24.

“2009 is not the year to push the envelope – it could be tough for the town, residents and businesses,” said Borough President Robert Conley.

Mayor Mary-Anna Holden stressed the need for a new street sweeper, and noted that the elevator for the Senior Center on Walnut Street was “definitely on the list.”

Borough Administrator Raymond Codey explained...

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Award for hero street cleaner

WARSOP street cleaner Barry Snowdon has already made a name for himself for his acts of bravery . . . now he has received an award for keeping the village's streets clean and tidy.

The community spirited 40-year-old was hailed a hero in August after preventing a burning truck carrying high-pressure gas bottles from exploding while on his rounds.

And the Mansfield District Council worker even turned crime fighter in March last year when he chased and caught a handbag thief, which earned him a commendation for...

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