2021_PWN_V3_No3_web

Going
Whole Hog
The Western Producer in Canada
reported on a new innovation in pressure
washing created by Agri-Marche,
a Quebec-based hog production and
supply business.
A leader in animal feed and a
subsidiary of Groupe Brochu, Agri-
Marché operates a number of animal
feed mills throughout Ontario and
Quebec. It also operates swine and
poultry breeding farms.
The company’s new product aims
to relieve hand and forearm fatigue
or tennis elbow from the need to grip
and engage a spray gun. That certainly
happens to hog barn workers with duties
to clean and disinfect barns and various
facilities within the operation, which can
take hours. Some workers, the company
reported, had resorted to taping the
spray gun mechanism open, but that
led to injury if the handler lost control
and the high-pressure gun and hose
started “dancing around unhindered,” the
company explained in a release.
Martin Gosselin of Agri-Marche
took steps to remedy the problem.
As a result of his new invention, he
was named the winner of the 2021
F.X.Aherne Prize for innovative pork
production. The award was announced
Jan. 7, 2021 during the on-line Banff
Pork Seminar.
“This is an innovation that makes
life in the barn a lot easier,” stated
awards committee chair Ben Willing
when announcing the winner. Speaking
through an interpreter, Melanie Fortier
of Agri-Marche said the constant need
to squeeze the trigger causes forearm
strain and injury. As well, workers have
been injured after falling in slippery
conditions, losing control of the wand,
and then being sprayed with pressurized
water or struck by the wand
or hose. Gosselin fashioned a way to
keep the gun engaged with a chain
and fashioned a strap that attaches
the wand to a worker’s wrist. If the
worker loses control of the wand, the
mechanism automatically disengages
the trigger. His prototype involved a
cat collar that releases under tension,
and the chain from a toilet flushing
system. Later versions use a heavier
chain and more durable strap.
The invention is not patented and
not for sale, but is only currently being
used in Agri-Marche facilities, Fortier
said. That leaves the door open for
people to develop their own similar
device to protect workers.
INDUSTRY DIRT
Making a Difference
The Osprey
Observer reported on
Rhett McClelland,
owner of Plant
City, Florida-based
pressure washing
company, Rooted
Property Maintenance, whose
company has only been in existence
for a few years. McClelland
does one free pressure washing to a
local church, business, nonprofit, or
homeowner each month.
McClelland told the paper he
feels “truly blessed” to have such
a successful business, even with
the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
And that success, he said, is a big
reason he wants to give back to the
community.
“I believe if you have been
blessed with things, you should be
giving back to others,” McClelland
said. “I try to do at least one charitable
pressure washing a month.”
Last month, he gave away a free
pressure washing to a local church’s
basketball court.
“I try to lift up everyone around
me,” McClelland said. “Those that
I can do good for, I do good for
them.”
McClelland pressure washed
Center Place Fine Arts and Civic
Center in Brandon in January.
McClelland has seen his fair
share of struggles
in life. There was a
time not too long
ago that he and his
family were struggling
and he had to
accept kindness from
a stranger.
“We had come upon some
hard times and I was out of
work. I needed to provide for
my family,” McClelland said. “A
woman who worked at the bank
I banked at told me about her
husband needing some help with
his pressure washing business. Her
husband really didn’t like hiring
people because they always let him
down.” This wasn’t the case with
McClelland. “I went to work with
him on my first day and he told me
he would pay me $12 an hour and
we’ll see where it goes from there,”
McClelland said. “When we got
done at the end of the day, he paid
what was worth $20 an hour. He
told me, ‘you are worth so much
more than $12 an hour.’”
This act of kindness eventually
led to McClelland saving enough
money to open Rooted Property
Maintenance. To learn more about
Rooted Property Maintenance,
visit www.facebook.com/
Rooted-Property-Maintenance.
Handing Off
The Daily News of Montcalm
County and Ionia County, Michigan
reported that Cody Ramey and
Derrick Battig, both of Ionia, recently
took over Four Seasons Mobile Power
Washing — now Four Seasons Drain
Services & Mobile Pressure Washing
— from former owner Kirk Wolthuis.
Four Seasons Mobile Power Washing
started in 2007 when Wolthuis started
the company himself.
“Everybody thought it was a bad
time to (start a company) since it
was a bad market. I did it anyway,”
Wolthuis told the paper. “It took
three or four years, but I kept at it
and gained new customers each year.
It ended up doing fairly well.”
Having known Ramey and Battig for
some time, Wolthuis said he was looking
for a way out of the company just as the
two were looking for a way in.
“I shrunk the company down a
couple of years ago, anyway, but it
was getting to be too much for me
to balance on top of everything else
I have going on,” Wolthuis explained.
“It’s done me very well, but it was
time for some new blood.”
Ramey said he was drawn to the
company specifically because of how
well received it was while Wolthuis
was running it.
“It’s an established business of 15
years,” Ramey noted. “The phone was
already ringing right away.”
With Ramey and Battig having 10
years of combined experience working
for local plumbing companies, the two
decided to add drain services on as a
new component to the business.
“The washing is kind of our
bread-and-butter, but we’re introducing
all kinds of plumbing stuff
too,” Ramey said. “More specifically,
we’re doing drain cleaning, kitchen
and bath remodels, camera inspections,
hydro-jetting and underground
(sewer) repair.”
Ramey said he’s hoping to bring
customers something that other
plumbing companies can’t when adding
this component onto Four Seasons.
VOL. 3, NO. 3 | SUMMER 2021 | PRESSURE WASH NEWS | 11