Spring Edition, March 20, 1985
Page 5
Sunny days bring long lines at area car washes
By SHELLE LEWIS
Staff Reporter
Students and others are rolling into Lawrence car wash lines as sunny days bring out the chamois, wax and Windex.
"The car wash business is affected by the weather 100 percent." Larry Sigler, owner of Raco Automatic Car Wash, 2028 Iowa St. said recently.
Car wash business varies with the weather forecast. Sieler said
"People will get their cars washed when the sun is shining," he said. "If it's cloudy, even if it's warm, they won't."
Area car wash operators agree that the biggest spurt in business comes when winter thaws.
"After the snow melts, there is an accumulation of salt and sand that people worry about," said Doug Cannon, Iowa City, Iowa, senior, who has worked at Hillcrest Amoco, 914 Iowa St., since July.
"Winter is the hardest time on cars. People will go weeks without getting them washed," he said.
SOME CAR WASHES close when the temperature dips below freezing, but Sigler says the bays at his car were not covered in those衣物 that prevented them from iceing.
Delbert Murphy, an attendant at Raco, recalled a problem that confronted a highway patrolman after he was injured during car during zero temperatures.
"He washed it and drove off," Murphy said. "A couple of miles down the road he had to stop and found he was shaken, so he closed because the doors had frozen shut.
An automatic car wash generally costs $1.50; self-service spray
"He said his car was frozen just
before he took the picture. I guess he was
pretty embarrassed."
CANNON SAID THE automatic car wash appealed to "students, wives — people who really don't want to take the time to get out of their cars."
"People don't really worry about spending the $1.50 to go through," he said.
At Hillcrest Amoco, the car wash is a convenience for people, and they are given a discount if they buy gasoline, he said.
Richard Haig, co-manager of Westside 66 and Car Wash, 2815 W. Sixth St., said mechanics in the sta-
tion are required to pack bays to find oil leaks in cars' engines.
"Probably 50 percent of our people that use it are students." Hair said.
In addition to cars, Haig said people used the car wash to wash trucks, campers, dirt bikes and four-wheel drive vehicles.
"People who have left their boats in the lake all summer will bring them through at the end of the summer." he said.
Jim Johnson, Wamego freshman,
works at Westside.
"He sprayed off his bike and even his helmet," Johnson said.
The most unusual use of the car wash he saw was by a cross country cycler.
However, Sigler said he was optimistic about the future of his business.
The car wash isn't a big moneymaker for the Westside station, but probably breaks even, Haig said.
Sigler said his car washing operation, which opened in April, was a new business and was paying high overhead costs.
"The car wash business is directly related to the car sales business," he said. "People will clean a new car more. Also, people are keeping their cars longer and cleaner."
Doug Ward/KANSAN
Jeff Efes, 216 N. 4th St., sprays down his car at the Raco Automatic Car warmer weather. Washing helps prevent the buildup of rust and grime that Wash, 216 Iowa St. The car has been busy since the arrival of often begins during the winter months.
Woman is barometer of Iowa's highs, lows
By United Press International
With the help of her small recording station, Swinford has been an one-woman weather station for the last 22 years. Weather Service for the last 22 years.
In a region where the weather is topic No. 1, it will be a clear day in November before anyone can pull a fast one on Swindon.
KEOKU, Iowa — Like any other Iowan, Mildred Swinford talks a lot about the weather. But anybody who wants to hold up his end of the conversation better know his cumulonimbus from an isobar.
Swinford doesn't make her own predictions, but she calls in data such as degree-days, high and low temperatures and precipitation to the weather bureau daily. Her information is sought by local utility companies, newspapers and even climatologists from as far away as California.
She has embarrassed more than one local homeowner who had gone to court trying to collect a tidy sum by inventing a wind storm or deluge for the benefit of their insurance company.
"Iinsurance companies call me and ask what the wind speed was on a particular day or how much rain we had, and I look it up in my book," she said. "One man with a ramshackle old house tried to claim its condition was caused by a wind storm."
She's grooming an understudy for her eventual retirement in a couple of years.
THE EASTER BUNNY IS BACK (AGAIN)
Swinford is the remnant of a once proud weather bureau detachment in New York.
The government established a weather station on Main Street in 1871, but closed it in 1940. The resulting uproar from the citizens did persuade the weather service to maintain a one-person station in the city, a job Swinford has held since 1962
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