Invercargill's Ascot Park Hotel has taken an environmental leap and ditched cleaning chemicals in favour of water and microfibre cloths.

Executive manager Peter Ridsdale said after months of testing the hotel took the plunge to 100 per cent chemical-free cleaning yesterday.

The move is expected to save $6000 in chemical costs annually and has helped secure the hotel three "green" conferences – for Apparelmaster, Environment Southland and a yet-to-be-named tourism organisation.

Other benefits have included less irritation for housekeepers, asthmatic guests raving about the rooms and social media commentator Craig Garner, who travels extensively, said he was blown away by the cleanliness of the room he stayed in.

Laboratory tests during an eight-week trial in which 10 rooms were cleaned with microfibre cloth and 10 with chemicals showed a massive difference in cleanliness.

The bacterial count in rooms cleaned chemically was 179, while in the microfibre rooms it was just 11.

"The only real downside is the room really doesn't smell like anything at all," Mr Ridsdale said.

The move was part of a four-year journey that began with a sustainability audit, resulting in a huge recycling project and an electrical audit that led to new light bulbs and $1000 a month savings.

The latest environmental project for the Invercargill Licensing Trust hotel is a plan to spearhead rejuvenation of Dog Island and joining forces with the Department of Conservation and Maritime New Zealand to investigate its historical, ecological and tourism potential.

The hotel had given $10,000 from one of the hotel's guest washing machines as an initial funding injection. Being a part of the sustainable movement was a huge thrill, Mr Ridsdale said.

"I'm not a greenie by any stretch of the imagination but I've embarked on a trail that's getting greener and greener.

"It has a feel-good factor not just for me but everyone else that works here as well," he said.

Read More At The Source

ALBANY undefined Legislation designed to push up the pay of janitors, security guards and groundskeepers at utility companies has created a holiday season lobbying spree now that the measure has been sent to Gov. David A. Paterson for consideration in his final days in office.

The pay boost affecting service industry workers on contract at utility companies presents a slippery slope, opponents say, because it broadens the state’s prevailing wage payment requirements, beyond just public agencies or private entities on public works projects, that now must pay the higher rates.

Besides raising energy costs for gas and electric utilities by millions of dollars, which will get passed on to consumers, the bill will also end up impacting other employers, including those located in “business improvement districts,” such as the 24-block Buffalo Place, according to opponents.

But Assemblyman Michael Gianaris, a Queens Democrat and sponsor of the bill in the Assembly, has a simple message: Calm down.

More at the source:Buffalo News

The 50-cent reward advertised on a strange, yellow disc, found propped against a recycling bin after washing up on Long Beach, made Jacki Aubertin laugh.

"It just cracked me up," said Aubertin, a Parks Canada janitor at Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, who cleaned the disc so she could read the inscription.

"I thought: 'How cheap is that? It wouldn't even cover the postage.'"

But the real reward was a story spanning 40 years that started near the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.

Aubertin took the plastic floater, which gave the return address of the U.S. Geological Survey in California, to Parks Canada colleagues, and ecosystem scientist John McIntosh wrote a letter to the USGS explaining where it was found. "We will happily forgo the 50-cent reward in the interests of science," he wrote.

After two months passed without a response, the mystery of the yellow disc became a joke among staff. Aubertin was even presented with a fake letter from President Barack Obama, with two U.S. quarters taped to it.

However, this week, letters from the USGS explained the disc was one of a series of "seabed drifters" dropped off in various locations near the bridge in March 1970 as part of a study on water circulation in San Francisco Bay and the adjacent Pacific Ocean. The Long Beach disc was one of the last stragglers from a group of 1,345 drifters.

Instead of 50 cents, Parks Canada staff were offered USGS T-shirts and baseball caps and, as a bonus, USGS contacted research oceanographer emeritus David Peterson, one of the researchers who released the discs.

It was a great surprise to have one of the discs turn up 40 years later, Peterson said. "One turned up in Hawaii about 15 years ago."

The research paper, which looked at how the currents could affect oil spills or drums of radioactive material in the ocean, said 19 per cent of discs recovered were found on beaches seaward of the Golden Gate and 81 per cent were found inside the Golden Gate.

Read more at the source:Vancuever Son 

An Atlanta janitorial service earlier this week offered $8-an-hour jobs sweeping floors and cleaning toilets and 56 unemployed people said, ‘Yes, indeed, I’m interested and I’ll come apply in person.'

Yet only a handful of the supposed jobseekers showed up for the interview in northern Cobb County. The turnout led Bob Williams, who owns the cleaning company, to question the work ethic of metro Atlanta’s unemployed.

“Somebody told me the other day, ‘I just don’t like this work. I think I’ll go draw unemployment instead,’ ” Williams said. “A lot of people say they want to work, but do they really want to work?”

If he paid $10 an hour he’d fill more positions. “That would probably work,” said Williams, whose company, AccuClean, services office buildings, schools and YMCAs across metro Atlanta. “But then I’m not competitive and I won’t get (cleaning) accounts.”

AccuClean’s hiring struggles reflect the conflicting economic trends that pushed Georgia's unemployment rate to 10.1 percent in November, from 9.8 percent in October, according to Georgia Department of Labor figures released Thursday.

Low-income, less-educated workers suffer a disproportionately high level of joblessness. The unemployment rate for Americans without a high school diploma, for example, is nearly 16 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But do those jobless truly want a job? Some economists and many conservatives argue that extended unemployment benefits keep the jobless rate artificially high by supporting the unemployed who otherwise would have no choice but to take any job. They pressed their case this past month as Congress debated continuing extended benefits for millions of unemployed Americans.

More at the source: AJC.com

 

Today was the deadline for a Colorado Springs man to clean up his yard. He had hoarded so much stuff at his Skyway home that the City of Colorado Springs took the unusual step of taking him to court.

Thomas Taylor has spent the last three weeks sorting and scrapping the various odds and ends lying around his yard trying to avoid a fine.

"The biggest part is not so much getting rid of it but is actually making the decision to get rid of; what's being kept, what's being stored, what's being given away and stuff like that," Taylor said.

A few weeks ago we showed you how his hobby of building Koi ponds and his love of bargain hunting had eventually overwhelmed his yard with junk. Neighbors say their properties have lost value as a result.

Taylor may have to pay up to a $2,000 fine if clean up isn't thorough enough. Touring the grounds this morning, code enforcement officer Deborah Stewart said she'd like to see more done.

"He's got a lot of progress but there's still a lot to be done."

Nevertheless, Taylor says doing this much cleaning has inspired him to restore the yard to its former glory, with green grass and sparkling ponds.

"I want to enjoy living here. This has not always been a pleasure. It's nice to be able to drive the car up to the front door, carry your groceries in and stuff like that."

Taylor says wants to have the yard ready by next summer's pond and garden tour

 

Source: News First 5

Step 1

Clean out the refrigerator. "Get rid of old food you're not going to use, things way past their prime," says Forte. Wipe drips and condensation off jars and bottles.

Step 2

Do one shelf at a time; temporarily move items to another shelf. Tackling the whole thing? Move items to a counter. If cleaning takes longer than 30 minutes (it shouldn't), consider using a cooler.

Step 3

Mix hot water and dishwashing liquid in the sink. Start with the main shelves; they're generally removable, so take them out and put them in the dishwater. Wash, rinse, dry and put back. Can't remove them? Wash with a soft cloth or sponge and soapy water, rinse and wipe dry.

 

Source: Times Delta

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- A 67-year-old Murfreesboro house cleaner is accused of robbing a homeowner of tens of thousands of dollars worth of jewels.

Linda June Hasty was arrested last week by Murfreesboro police. Police said she admitted to taking the property while working for the home owner.

In November, the home owner filed a report with police after the resident said she had more than $32,000 worth of jewelry that disappeared.

At first the resident thought she had misplaced the items. She told police the only one with access to her home was her husband, the cleaning lady and her gardener.

Hasty was later arrested in the case.

“(If you have someone clean your house) you should still take certain precautions, locking up your jewelry, putting them in a safe, secret location only known to you. Do background checks on the people you let in your house to do work for you,” said Murfreesboro police spokesman Officer Kyle Evans.

Police said Hasty pawned the items at two Murfreesboro pawn shops. The homeowner was only able to recover three of pieces of jewelry.

Murfreesboro police has partnered with Leads Online, which allows residents to upload photos and identifiable markings on your property. The online data base is used to recover property if they are attempted to be sold at pawn shops or eBay.

Source: WSMV

 An 82-year-old woman found a decades-old unexploded ordinance in her home Wednesday afternoon, police said.

The ordnance, which police said had been rusted over, was a little more than a foot long and resembled a World War II-era artillery shell.

It was taken away without incident by two bomb technicians from the Bergen County Police Department, police said.

“We were cleaning out the cellar,” said the woman, Alice Smyser. “We came across this thing and didn’t know what it was.”

Smyser said that she’s lived in the Prospect Street home for more than 50 years, and that it’s been in her family for even longer, since 1923.

“My cellar has been very, very full of things,” she said. “It’s an accumulation of a lot.”

 

Source: NorthJersey.com