Recap of Vegas Parking Garage event

This information/learning type of parking garage event that also had the attendees try some of the newest equipment that was out there, from what where hearing the consensus was that the show was a success. We did have some problematic issues but the event committee team worked day and night to get most of the issues solved.

When I get home I’ll give a recap and add some pics and video I took with my phone camera(yup I left my good camera at home again-DOH!!)

Looking forward to next years event in which we have 2 cities lined up already… The only hint I’ll give away for now on this is they will be warm locations which is a priority for us “older” folk;)

I thought of you today John as I had a meeting downtown and decided to park in the parking deck attached to the restaurant.

I heard this awful racket and just knew that I had torn the cab marker lights off. I got out to investigate at which point I realized it was just that silly radio antenna.

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Yup I’ve been there Tim. One of those swinging height bars broke the air filter cover on one of my Kohlers last year. Also got one of my trucks wedge into an exit way that cause some serious scratches to the top of the cab.

We actually cleaned a garage 2 yrs ago where the 3rd floor below ground in the very far back end only had a 5’9" clearance and there were parking spaces there… It’s like they built some of these garages for leprechauns.

Where is Rob Huffman, anyway?

Right here. But dont get mad at me cause I dont have back problems and I dont have to duck in the 5’9" garages. Heck I had to make a rope ladder for our one snow truck…LOL.

John I can remember four of us standing on trucks moving them bars to get around in some garages…haha.

How are you making out there Tim?

We’re doing good. Still attacking residential and slowly adding in some multi-family. We haven’t started washing for the season yet but we have the fullest pre-season ever.

Life is good.

I hear you there Tim. We are going nuts with the contracts and proposals going out on a daily basis this year. Our website is helping as well as all the marketing we are doing.

Do you all still have any snow?

Where out. Residential for us has started full speed ahead. 2 days coming up it’s going to be 29 degrees when the Guys start in the AM… Should be interesting… But it’s time to start collecting the overrated green stuff that goes into the wallet then…POOF…like magic it disappears.

Jim Gamble “The Garage Doctor” 2013 Vegas Parking Garage Event
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There were aprox 46 people in attendance. The Distributors, Manufacturers & Contractors that brought their machines to the event were Steel Eagle,Cyclone,Rashco Manufactoring,HydroTek,Powerwash.com, Jim Cooney’s Hot & Mighty filtration trailer and the “The Garage Doctor” Jim Gamble’s large filtration trailer. Also a big thanks to Jim Lewis for bringing a HydroTek trailer. We also had The premier Powerwashing Industry writer in Allison Hester from Eclean Magazine in attendance.

A special surprise for all at this event was that DODGE brought 5 of their newest and best trucks they sell including 2 flatbeds. Every truck had all the options including leather interiors. Totally awesome!

Tues. March 26 @ 9am we had our introductions. After that we had “Babe Ruth’s Granddaughter” Linda Ruth Tosetti and (Myself)Clean County PW John Tornabene speak about how the Powerwashing Industry has connected with an American Icon by following their passions and how this can have a positive influence on every day hard working Powerwashing Contractors to follow their business related passions.

Next up Nigel Griffith from “Griff’s Services” was given a Babe Ruth Picture & Plaque from Linda for his continuing efforts on experimenting with Environmental cleaning devices to help many contractors have a better understanding on how to clean without having a negative impact on the environment.

Nigel then followed this up with his session on how he was doing the above thru pictures and Video’s with explanations. He also showed us a video of how he cleans concrete flatwork while being environmentally friendly in his procedures.

Robert Hinderliter(Affectionally known as “The Godfather of the Powerwashing Industry”) from “Rashco Manu/MultiTech wash water re-capture” spoke about EPA regulation and applying BMP’s in with your cleaning procedures. Roberts speeches are always loaded with invaluable amounts of information.

After lunch break we had Michael Hinderliter from “Steamaway Inc.” speak about the 9 tips to help manage the growth of your business. Michael has this so fine tuned there shouldn’t be any wonder as to why he is a successful entrepreneur.

Then our Key note speaker “The Garage Doctor” Jim Gamble from " Crystal Cleaning Company" spoke for a couple of hours on how to maximize your cleaning while doing a garage and how to be very profitable at it. He explained how it’s not what you Gross or how many garages a year you do but how to have a higher NET income for every garage you clean.

These speaking sessions ended after 5pm and later on that night we went to the social in Jim’s suite that was on top of the Rios hotel on the 51st floor. The views were spectacular!! Socializing with your fellow Contractors,Distributors & Manufacturers in this classy type setting made this a special memory of how far we can go with these Events. The creative juices were flowing thru out these socials.

Wed. March 27th started aprox 9am where each Dist/Manuf/Contractor took turns talking about what they brought. They also took questions from the audience. About 2 hrs later we all headed over to the garage to see some of the newest Machines on the market. The excitement of seeing these machines caused most attendees to ask a lot more questions and a ton of picture taken was going on here. Some of the machines were used by the attendees to see how well they work. Along with all of this, The “Garage Doctor” Jim Gamble walked us all thru this garage while showing us some of the hot tips on what he does to maximize the cleaning processes. He pointed out the Plumbing of drains and explained in fine detail how the garage system works. Who knew you could get so sore just walking a garage going over every detail:)
All of this ended near 5pm. Afterwords many met up and went to dinner together. Later that night a few of us met up in Jim’s suite to talk some more shop. Linda Ruth Tosetti and Jim had some long conversations with each other as did some others. Its always a neat experience seeing friendships being formed and connections being made. The backdrop of The Vegas Strip and the mountains just made this all feel-- Right!

Thursday was a much anticipated day. We had The Vegas MS4 Vegas Enviro Director and his staff here. The Enviro director took the stage and spoke for a couple of hours. He was very articulate and he knew exactly what he was talking about. Along the way a few of us Led by Robert Hinderliter, Rob Carey, myself and a few others asked some of the tougher questions but all along keeping everything professional and never argumentative. This session was videotaped from beginning to end by 3 different camera’s from 3 different places in the room.

When this session ended Robert Hinderliter told the audience that this was the most informative EPA session he’s been to in over 30 yrs. (Were we all satisfied with the answers?Of course not but its all important to have an open line of communication with these professionals that do this as their main occupation compared to going by what others say on the net who aren’t qualified or properly trained to answer these questions)
Did most of us learn a lot here?Most definitely yes. Was it overwhelming because of all the information? For me it sure was. The biggest thing I learned here was that my company needs to have some BMP’s in place for some of the work we do.

Right after that we had the drawing for a HydroTek & Steel Eagle hose reals that they so generously donated. Some of the attendees went off to test drive the Dodge trucks soon after.At this point the Event came to an official closing.

The overall consensus was that this Event was Unique and it was also a success. A few of us left here not wanting to take a break from this but to start the planning for next year and try to add much more to what we’ve done here.

For the Parking Garage and Concrete Flatwork cleaners we now have a “Unique” event we can call our very own. There’s a ton of idea’s flowing around here for the next bunch of yrs such as adding in other org’s/assoc participation along with some other related type of contractor work such as line striping and concrete coverings for example.

To quote Mike who brought 3 of these Dodge trucks,when him and I were at the Wed nite social(keep in mind some of these trucks came from out of state) I asked Mike would he like to come to another show next year if we do it again and his answer was “Absolutely”!

In closing for all who helped out with this event and to Jim Cooney & Jim Gamble aka “The Garage Doctor” for dreaming up this Unique type of Parking Garage Cleaning Event" it was an amazing and wonderful experience.

John Tornabene
Clean County Powerwashing.

I’ll post some pics later this week after I download them.

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John T and I both learned how to cash in chips at blackjack. First time either of us ever left the table with money left over (and we actually both came out ahead). I’d call that a success!

I think from the attendees’ standpoint, the networking was the best part. Perfect sized group for networking. Also, the EPA rep was very informative. I’ll post photos sometime soon.

This garage event was really good. A lot of information.

I know the following is not going to be well received on any BBS. But putting our heads in the sand will not make the issues go away. I think everyone should be aware of what is happening so that we can try to do something about it before it gets here. These new regs will be forced upon myself as well, and I do not like it.

I have learned yesterday of new regs coming down the pipe line for Northern and Southern California. This information will be presented in our next Environmental Parking Garage event for 2014.

But to give you some insight of what I have learned, these new regs that California and Region Nine will be enforcing will make the Texas Issues seem like child’s play.

I will work with the Region 9 and local POTW’s to delay or modify these strict regs coming down the pipe line. I will use all of my contacts to make these regs more favorable to the mobile washer.

Everything from discharge to using just plain water to clean with is being amp up and further restricted. As I have said before in 2008 and before the Texas incident, these regs will eventually reach other states. I imagine it will eventually go to Maryland, Atlanta, South Carolina, Texas would the states to be following California, sooner then later would be my guess.

For the record, I do not agree with what is coming down the pipeline. I only support Parking Garage Cleaning with Filtration and other extreme class II waste discharge that should be filtered before discharge.

These regulations are not being enforced as of Today, but they are on the books for discussion. My job is to try to modify those regs to benefit the mobile washer, especially those who just want to clean sidewalks using Hot Water and without any chemicals being used.

For the new guy getting into this line of work, may I suggest you start saving your money for a Vac and filtration system like the Hydro Tek AV-88. Its about $4,500 or less if you can work out a deal. Vacuuming all of your waste water with full recovery is the talk of the EPA as of today, though hopefully this can change especially since I do not have a vac system yet, meaning, I will have to buy several.

When this hits, expect the pricing for those vacs to increase ( Supply and Demand). I am sure those who sell their vac units at a higher price then today. I am sure they will state that the costs are going up, when it most likely will be supply and demand.

My suggestion, start saving . . . yesterday.

Those who work in region 9, will have a rude of awakening when this goes into effect, unless I can pull a rabbit out of the hat in the 11:00 hour.

So are you going to enlighten us on any of these supposed new regulations? You Stated (But to give you some insight of what I have learned, these new regs that California and Region Nine will be enforcing will make the Texas Issues seem like child’s play. ) But you dont tell us a single regulation. You also stated (This information will be presented in our next Environmental Parking Garage event for 2014.) So if you arnt going to even present this tell 2014, It dosent seem to be that relevent to even be worried about it at this point. If these regulations are so serious then why hide them from us tell 2014. And what about the contractor that dosent do parking garages? Is he supposed to go to the Parking garage event and pay for that when he dosent do that type of work just to here about the regulations that you dont seem to want to say what they are. We all should have a say of what we think aswell. Yes it is good that you are willing to stand up and try to do something about this,but, you are not the only one that should have a say in this. We did not vote you in to be our speaker and to only give your thoughts.

RS Sweeper(you need to fill out your signature so we know who where talking to) Anyone can speak to an EPA official anywhere. It could be one person or you could be someone representing a group. Your tax dollars pay for the EPA pretty much so it’s within your right to find out when they have open hearings or sessions that you can go to. You could probably also get them to come to your meeting like we did in Vegas but that was no small task. A pain in the arz actually but it got done.

So what do you suggest to do when it’s fair game to speak to them as an individual or a group? There not going away so that option is out. What group should be picked to represent the contractors? Who would you support to do this? My quick thoughts on this for now is what Jim Gamble suggest. Him, you, or anyone who wants to report back go do it yourself or with some other industry type people who need to know this stuff to stay a step ahead especially when dealing with larger type contracts.

Appreciate your thoughts

Ed, I suggest you look into this personally. Whatever is coming you shouldn’t wait till 2014 to find out, or have to wait for someone else to tell you. Take the bull by the horns and get involved with your area, you have a voice in these matters that affect you, use it.

Well lets start with this,

John T,

I have not been able to find the quick link button that a search of this site told me to click on to make my signature, maybe you can tell me how to do it. I tried to message you about this and this site wont let me untill I have made 10 posts, what a joke with that.

Ed Ragains
Ragains Sweeping Service
760-247-0878

Jim made the statement (Those who work in region 9, will have a rude of awakening when this goes into effect, unless I can pull a rabbit out of the hat in the 11:00 hour. ) That to me is saying he is the only one that would be able to do anything. I dont think so. As you or GuyB said we all have a say in this.

My question is still, what regulations has he heard about, and why is he not stating what they are that he has heard. Makes you think that again he is in control and only he can change things.

Jim also stated that (I have learned yesterday of new regs coming down the pipe line for Northern and Southern California. This information will be presented in our next Environmental Parking Garage event for 2014.) So to me he is saying that he wont tell what these regulations are unless you attend his siminar. I dont do parking garages and am not looking at doing them either. So why isnt he telling all of us what he has heard and get our opinions also. Before He is able to pull his rabbit out of his hat.

I think these are valid questions and think he should tell everyone what he has heard if it is giong to impact all of us. I think you need to reread what he wrote above,he keeps stating he he he (I will work with the Region 9 and local POTW’s to delay or modify these strict regs coming down the pipe line. I will use all of my contacts to make these regs more favorable to the mobile washer.) & (These regulations are not being enforced as of Today, but they are on the books for discussion. “My job” is to try to modify those regs to benefit the mobile washer, especially those who just want to clean sidewalks using Hot Water and without any chemicals being used.)

Why not ask for some input from others and there support and or help also.

To add your signature go to “My PWR” on the top right and then “Community Account”. Then you will see “Edit Signature” in the menu on the left side.

The 10 posts before PMs is an anti-spam measure. Welcome to PWR!

Thank you Thad,

We will see if it worked as soon as i hit the post key,lol

Now I only have 7 posts left tell I can message people…

Hey Ed- I don’t know how to answer some of your questions but I’ll give it a shot in the dark on some. Let’s start with Jim Gamble. He is actually dying to post about these regs or potential regs. He also knows he doesn’t communicate to well when he post at times. He has “lots” to say and goes into such fine detail about these things because he’s passionate about it. He can easily talk about this stuff for 3+hrs so you can imagine what he leaves out when he gets into posting about these things where after a 100 words people start to lose interest(that don’t have much interest to start out with) and they come back at him without reading his entire post and sometimes Jim is guilty of this to happen because he didn’t make his point clear enough because he is trying to shorten his response to make a point and this is where he gets caught up. Jim is the type of guy who needs to talk with people so they understand him. I classify Jim as one of those “Info hwy type guys”.

It’s because of the way Jim and a few others like to go into fine detail with this & some other stuff I am seriously considering on building a site thats made for these conversations and extremely passionate people who are like “Doctors of there profession”-- I know crazy…lol… But it’s true… Still gathering data on this.

What I can tell you from my experiences is this whole EPA thing is a bit complex. What I’m finding out is these people that get involved in this such as the ones who work and speak for the EPA or An EPA type division, these people tend to be a bit on the brainy side as in they know their stuff. If they were to post on a bulletin board for example they probably could not get to the point unless their post are 1000+words plus. They do not like to just say YES or NO without an explanation.

If you want Jim to be more clear on what’s going on your best bet is to call him and if you catch him get ready to have a 2 hr conversation… He is that passionate on this.

Sig looks good and you should be able to send messages now.
:wink:

What an event we had !!!

John, is the committee closer to the location of the next event?

Could we have it in Hawaii or how about international with Cancun or Los Cabos?