Content about Texas

2014 Cleaners Showcase Trade Show provided by Southwest Drycleaners Association

Located at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas.

For more info, e-mail staff@sda-dryclean.com or phone 512-873-8195.

HOUSTON — Harris County (Texas) Attorney Vince Ryan reports that his office has reached a $2.175 million settlement in a case against owners of a shuttered dry cleaning facility here for chemical contamination of groundwater.

The lawsuit accused Redonda Properties and Seven BC, doing business as San Felipe Joint Venture, SF Properties, and PMSV River Oaks, L.P. of allowing dry cleaning solvents to contaminate the soil and groundwater under and near the former Hallmark Dry Cleaners on San Felipe Road in the River Oaks area of Houston.

According to the lawsuit, the area is contaminated with perchloroethelyne (perc).

The pending judgment is for the largest sum ever in favor of a Texas county against owners and operators of a dry cleaner, Ryan says. Money from the settlement will be divided equally between Harris County and the State of Texas. Notice of the proposed settlement was published Oct. 19 in the Texas Register. The public has 30 days from the date of publication to submit written comments.

LAUREL, Md. — Jan Barlow, CGCP®, owner of Jan’s Professional Cleaners, Clio, Mich., has become the Drycleaning and Laundry Institute’s (DLI) second female president, and the organization has welcomed a host of new faces to its governing body.

DLI’s board of directors recognizes valued contributions and inducts new volunteer leadership. New directors are sworn in as their predecessors move to an executive office or become DLI senators, an exclusive title for previous board members.

Barlow succeeds Charlie Smith, owner of Village Square Cleaners, Reston, Va., who completed his one-year term as president.

David Machesney, owner of Pratt-Abbott Cleaners, Westbrook, Maine, became DLI’s president-elect. Allan Johnson III, owner of Peerless Cleaners, Corpus Christi, Texas, became treasurer.

DLI membership elected two dry cleaning professionals to district directorships: Brad Ewing, CED®, Nu Way Cleaners, Greeley, Colo., representing District 7, and David Suber, CED®, owner of Perfect Cleaners in Los Angeles, representing District 8.

SAN ANTONIO — Richard Thum, co-founder and president of Five Star Cleaners, was recently elected president of The Southwest Drycleaners Association (SDA) at its annual convention.

The regional trade association, with more than 300 members, is an affiliate of the Drycleaning & Laundry Institute (DLI). The 96-year-old association serves the professional dry cleaners of Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

Thum served as first vice president of the organization last year, and has served on the SDA board in various capacities for 28 years.

He launched Comet Cleaners in San Antonio in 1981 along with his wife, Sharlene, and the name was changed to Five Star Cleaners in 2004. The Thums own 11 locations across San Antonio.

Thum holds a bachelor of science degree in real estate finance from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, and has a real estate broker’s license in Texas.

CHICAGO — The filing deadline for 2011 federal income taxes is not far off, but you still have time to make sure you’ve done everything you can to keep Uncle Sam’s paws off as much of your money as possible. Here are some last-minute ways to do that by reducing your 2011 income tax bill:

Save More for Retirement

One of the most important tax-savings steps you can take is contributing the maximum to your 401(k) or other tax-deferred retirement plan. If you haven’t done so, max out your retirement savings now by bringing your contribution up to the legal limit. For 2011, you may put as much as $16,500 into a 401(k), 403(b) or 457 plan. If you’re over age 50, you may add an additional $5,500.

Every dollar you contribute means you will pay less income tax. Except for Roth IRAs, all contributions to tax-deferred retirement plans are tax-deductible in the tax year for which you make your contribution.

If you can’t come up with the maximum, bump up your contribution as much as you possibly can. It may seem painful now, but you’ll benefit greatly in the future.

PEMBROKE, Mass. — Family Drycleaners, in Hull, Mass., sells children’s toys in its front-counter section. Dolls, games and wooden toys are its stock in trade. Management says this adjunct business does well because no one else in town carries children’s toys. If a customer wants a nice wooden toy, say, as a gift, they have to buy it at Family Drycleaners.

Such selling of unrelated products goes against the conventional wisdom of Drycleaning Management 101. Do what you do well—process clothes efficiently and cleanly. Peddle ancillary trade—alterations, shoe repair, etc. And, if you sell anything in the front, make sure it’s related to garment care—lint brushes, stain stick, clothing bags and the like.

Sometimes, you go against conventional wisdom because selling unrelated products makes sense. In Marfa, Texas, there is a Laundromat/coffee shop/ice cream parlor—a three-in-one business. The reason it works is because Tumbleweeds Laundry is the only laundry, the only ice cream shop and the only “pure” coffee shop in the small town of 2,200.

Operators returning to the industry sawed off an abandoned building to create a dream plant, taking Plant Design honors.

BERKLEY, Mich. — When TV star Ty Pennington gave his trademark direction to “Move that bus” to reveal a newly-built home one recent afternoon, it represented a fresh start for a wounded soldier and his new bride, compliments of ABC-TV’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The weeklong project in Salado, Texas, also marked the completion of the 100th episode of the show for the Certified Restoration Drycleaning Network (CRDN).

ARLINGTON, Texas — Although a bit smaller than usual, the 2010 Southwest Drycleaners Association (SDA) Cleaners Showcase, held in Arlington, Texas, in April, had everything an enquiring operator could want in a show: exhibits, meetings, networking, seminars and awards.

Preconvention events included a seminar with “Cowboy Cleaner” Kenny Slatten, “Production Motivation Criteria for Today’s Owners/Managers,” which covered ways to use downtime effectively while the economy recovers.

Outstanding Production Facility: CRDN of Southern Nevada, Las Vegas, Nev.

Located in an industrial park eight miles from Glitter Gulch, CRDN’s 8,300-square-foot plant is built to handle restoration work throughout the region quickly and efficiently. And the spotless new plant does just that, with room to grow.

Hobbs, N.M., in 1932 was like nothing I had ever seen: A dirty, no-pavement, oil town with no place to live. Oil wells pumped all over town, and it smelled like rotten eggs. We found a shotgun house, outdoor plumbing and shared outside shower (cold), but we were glad to get it.