National Clothesline

The East Coast School of Drycleaning is up and running in Riviera Beach, FL. Steve Jennings, owner of Radiant Leather Care in Riviera Beach, with assistance from former Neighborhood Cleaners Association garment analyst Dan Eisen, put the school together to answer the need he saw from more education and knowledge for drycleaners.

After a year of staff training and writing manuals, the school opened with Rick Watson as assistant director. The school is equipped with drycleaning, wetcleaning and finishing equipment and offers about two classes per month in drycleaning, wetcleaning, spotting, finishing, and counter training.

A recently launched web site for the school at www.esdc.us has details on the course offerings, alerts on problem garments making their rounds in drycleaning plants, expert tips and advice from Dan Eisen and links to key industry resources.

Eisen began working with Jennings and Watson after he had retired from NCA and moved to Florida.

Jennings’ Radiant Specialty Leather Care is a large wholesaler cleaner of suede and leather with more than 1,000 cleaners as customers. Jennings is also involved with the Florida Drycleaning Coalition.

Watson, the associate director of the school, also works for Radiant Specialty Services as an assistant manager and serves as the assistant garment analyst for the International Independent Garment Analysis Service.

To contact the school, call (561) 494 0737 or e-mail info@esdc.us.

Cleaners looking to expand their knowledge of UniMac OPL laundry equipment will have a few opportunities at the company’s newly-built World Training Center in Marianna, Florida.

UniMac is offering a four-day advanced service training class from September 22-25.

Service-training experts will offer in-depth discussions on installation, maintenance and diagnostic methods.

Participants will learn how to read wiring diagrams, troubleshoot and diagnose electrical problems, understand and diagnose electromechanical and microprocessor controls, and learn all types of AC inverter drives used on UniMac OPL equipment.

The advanced session will also feature a tour of the factory from 8 to 9 a.m. on the first day. Afterward, UW washer-extractors will be covered.

Class will meet from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for the next three days. Daily topics will be: UX washer-extractors on Tuesday; UC washer-extractors on Wednesday; and tumbler dryers on Thursday.

A four-day basic service training seminar will take place from Nov. 17-20.

Attendees will receive a factory tour from 8 to 9 a.m. on Monday, followed by an educational session on washer-extractor’s electrical control and programming from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Class will resume from Tuesday through Thursday between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. daily.

Topics to be covered include: washer-extractor’s electrical drive system on Tuesday; washer-extractor’s mechanical breakdown on Wednesday; and tumbler dryers on Thursday.

For more information, call UniMac’s customer service department at (920) 748-3121.

This fall, the Memphis City school system plans to open a sleek new school after the property underwent a $2 million cleanup of perc-contaminated soil.

The school was built on property that formerly housed a drycleaning plant in business from the early 1900s until the 1970s.

Prior to construction, crews removed 1,750 cubic yards of perc-tainted soil in April of 1999. Two years later, during site-preparation efforts, soils as deep as 20 feet were excavated from the property. Workers removed about 70,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater and installed expensive monitoring equipment to track any lingering traces of solvent in the groundwater.

Pickering Environmental Consultants, Inc. was hired to check solvent vapor levels following the cleanup. The company indicated that the ground’s highest solvent levels were reduced to thousands of times less than the maximums allowed under federal standards.

Once the site was no longer considered a health hazard, the construction began. The project cost about $20 million — not counting the $2 million in cleanup fees —†due to high real estate costs and the building’s visually impressive design. The average cost per square foot was $150, making it the most expensive new school in Shelby County. The project was part of an effort to reinvigorate downtown Memphis.