Keeping downtown clean, green and fun, the Downtown Clean Team Promotions and Maintenance are familiar sights on downtown streets every summer from May to August.
With the Downtown BIZ Maintenance Coordinator, four Promotions and Maintenance Crew members, there is a team on downtown streets working hard to make downtown sparkle. But they need the help of local businesses to really make a difference.
Downtown Clean Team Promotions
 You can't miss this lime green team. You'll find them sweeping sidewalks, watering flowers and entertaining with impromptu songs about keeping our city clean and green.
The Promotions team can be spotted cleaning up litter, maintaining planters and flowers, and removing old posters. They are also a highlight at Out to Lunch concerts and other downtown events, entertaining with juggling, face painting and balloon animals.
Throughout the course of the summer, this team of high school and university students will visit 80 downtown businesses, complimentarily cleaning their property. Neon brooms are provided to these businesses as encouragement to take charge of litter and cleanliness on their block. At the end of the summer, the Promotions crew will award the Order of the Neon Broom to three businesses that have made an extra effort to maintain their properties.
Downtown Clean Team Maintenance
 If it needs cleaning, painting or maintaining, this green cover-all crew is on the job. Their work keeps downtown looking sharp for shoppers, visitors, workers and residents who appreciate the effort.
The Maintenance crew takes on pruning and watering plants, graffiti removal and other general maintenance. For big clean-up jobs, they use a sidewalk vacuum and pressure washer. The Maintenance and Promtions crew work together to ensure downtown is kept neat and clean after major events.
Maintenence crew partners include: Winnipeg Transit, Manitoba Education & Training; City of Winnipeg Public Works; and the Urban Green Team.
Looking for a summer job?
If you have a landscaping or theatre background, or if you're interested in keeping downtown clean and green this summer, the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ is looking for you!
Every spring, we hire for several summer positions with the Clean Team Promotions and Maintenance. Some of these positions are made possible with funding grants for students. Positions are full-time, May to August. We start recruiting in early March.
NOTE: All Positions have been filled for the 2008 season
Send resume to Debra Tomiski at debra@downtownwinnipegbiz.com or 101-426 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3C 0C9.
 Download Downtown Maintenance Crew Job Description (PDF)
Download Litter and Maintenance Crew Job Description
Maintenance Coordinator
Derek Manaigre is working hard to keep downtown clean. Hired in February 2003 as the Downtown BIZ's first full time maintenance coordinator, Derek works with businesses and summer crews to keep downtown clean and graffiti-free. He also maintains equipment and coordinates clean-up jobs with the City of Winnipeg. In the summer, the Promotions Crew and DMC help him make downtown sparkle.
Clean & Green Tips for Businesses
Your customers, clients and employees come downtown everyday. The perception of your business or organization begins before they step inside your shop or office. Their perceptions are influenced by what they see outside your building before they enter it. How clean and eye-pleasing is the front of your building? What kind of image are you projecting to your customers?
People enjoy being surrounded by beauty. A clean, attractive building front and entrance will create positive feelings associated with your organization. While the Downtown BIZ crews work hard at keeping downtown clean to present an overall positive image of downtown, you can help by maintaining the front of your building.
So, what can you do?
- Evaluate the outside of your building. Is there a lot of litter? Is the sidewalk dirty? Does the front look dull? Are there any unsightly weeds? Is anything broken?
- Decide what small steps you can take to make a difference. You might buy a broom and dustpan and take five minutes at the start of your day to sweep the sidewalk. You could make a point of picking up litter first thing each morning. Buy two potted plants to put next to your doorway. Clean your windows as needed. Wash down the sidewalk once a week. Fill a window box with colourful flowers. Add some green creepers that will brighten your building's walls. Be creative!
- If you notice some big clean up jobs that you don't have the resources for, call the Downtown BIZ at 958-4640, and we'll help you decide on the best way to take care of it.
If you make a habit of ensuring the front of your business is clean each morning, your customers will appreciate it. Just think: if every business takes on some responsibility for their little corner of downtown, the overall image presented to all downtown visitors will improve significantly.
The Promotions Crew will be on the lookout over the summer for three businesses that take the initiative to make and keep their business front clean and green. You could be the next winner of the Order of the Neon Broom!
Preventing rooftop graffiti
Rooftop graffiti is a growing problem--and it's very expensive and time-consuming to remove. Rooftop graffiti is created by perpetrators who get onto the roof of a smaller building and, standing on the building, tag an adjacent, taller building. Steps you can take: - Cover ladders with roof access with a steel plate covering the bottom 10 feet.
- Move dumpster bins that are very close to the building several feet away.
- Cover all vertical pipelines on your building with a rounded plate.
- Lobby your property owner to make these changes so your customers don't see unsightly rooftop graffiti as they walk down the street to your business.
Questions about how to keep your business front clean? Call Derek Manaigre, Downtown BIZ Maintenance Coordinator, at 958-4624 or e-mail Derek
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