Content about New Jersey

The National Cleaners Association (NCA) will present its Radical Drycleaning/Stain Removal Course on Aug. 5 through Aug.  9 in Northvale, N.J.

For more information, call 212-967-3002 or e-mail ncaiclean@aol.com.

NEW YORK CITY — It’s the nation’s most comprehensive health insurance reform since Medicare. And it’s been endorsed as constitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Now, how will the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) affect your dry cleaning business? Will your premiums go down? Will it be easier to shop for insurance? Will the available policies offer better coverage? And will you be protected from those profit-busting price hikes that so often occur when one employee in a small group gets seriously ill?

We’ll answer your most important questions at the end of this article. Here’s one thing to get out of the way first, though: No employer will be required to provide health insurance. However, some employers, as you will see, will pay penalties if they do not provide insurance and their employees decide to buy insurance from the new statewide insurance pools.

HACKENSACK, N.J. — Hallak Couture Cleaners says it has launched Bergen Linen, a new service for the restaurant, airline, hospitality, country club and spa industries in a newly acquired 10,000-square-foot facility.

A full range of laundry, dry cleaning, tailoring and embroidery services are now available, along with comprehensive care for interiors, including carpets, upholstery, walls, lampshades, locker-room tile and grout cleaning, Hallak says. Rentals, including but not limited to table and bed linens, aprons, chef apparel and uniforms, will also be offered.

Bergen Linen offers complimentary pickup and delivery six days a week in the Bergen County area and provides customized billing to work within any business infrastructure.

In addition, with state-of-the-art technology, unexpected emergencies such as water extraction, smoke or fire damage, and mold remediation can be mitigated, Hallak says.

Hallak Cleaners is a family-owned company that has been providing quality fabricare for discerning clientele in the New York metro area for nearly 50 years.

FAIRFIELD, N.J. — The Textile Care Allied Trades Association’s Annual Management and Educational Conference will feature three speakers covering a wide array of topics to help members with their businesses.

Scheduled to appear during the April 18-21 event at the Williamsburg Lodge in Williamsburg, Va., are:

Pennsylvania & Delaware Cleaners Association Drycleaning and Laundry Expo, to be held in Atlantic City, N.J. Call 215-830-8495 or 800-822-7352 for more information.

CHICAGO — When it comes to investing your money, there’s more than enough pessimism to go around, and nowhere is it easier to find than in today’s municipal bond market. Many state and local municipalities are facing the toughest budget problems they have ever seen. California, Illinois and New Jersey are among the states wrestling with money woes. Major cities such as Philadelphia, Atlanta, and Columbus, Ohio, are on a long list of municipalities looking at major tax increases and/or cutting of services and personnel as a last resort for rising above an enveloping debt crisis.

Marilyn Cohen, president and CEO of Envision Capital Management, describes the current bond market as “the biggest slow-motion train wreck I've ever seen.”

LOS ANGELES — There’s a drycleaner in my neighborhood that brags that, “The only greener way to care for your clothes is to use a rock and a stream.”

That drycleaner has no solar panels, uses fluorescent lighting (which remains lit 24 hours a day, though the business is closed for 10 of those hours), has no reusable or even bio-degradable packaging, and is in fact a perc cleaner. Why does the business advertise itself as green? “Because consumers like green.”

And why don’t they don’t incorporate any green initiatives into their operations? “We’ve run our business the same way for 50 years, we see no reason to change.”

What, I asked, would they think if other industries operated that way: no computers, no fax machines, no remote-controlled televisions. “That’s different, that’s innovation. This green technology is only a different way of doing the same thing.”

CHICAGO — The year was 1977. I was 20 years old, creating advertising supplements for shopping malls, and I had the opportunity to use a new technology—the Exxon QWIP machine.

I would put a piece of paper into a small mimeograph-like machine and put a phone handset into a cradle; then, I would stand in amazement as the paper spun. Four minutes later, an ad produced in New Jersey was visible in Maryland. Wow—a technology that communicated printed matter through a phone!

CHICAGO — While the competition for Best Plant Design was stiff in spite of a recessionary building bust, American Drycleaner is pleased to announce that Hallak Cleaners in Hackensack, N.J., is the Grand Prize winner in its 50th annual Plant Design Awards.

TRENTON, N.J. - The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is dedicating $5 million to funding grants for drycleaners who wish to upgrade to new equipment and cut perchloroethylene emissions.

Won in a lawsuit against three Midwestern utilities whose emissions reached New Jersey airspace, the money will help plants using perc replace or upgrade their equipment to "greener" technologies, DEP says. Approximately 1,700 perc machines are in use in the state today.

EDGEWATER, N.J. — The CBS reality special I Get That A Lot showcased drycleaning last week, with celebrity chef and talk-show host Rachael Ray working the counter of a small New Jersey plant.

The show puts famous people in everyday jobs, where they are inevitably recognized by patrons. The celebrities attempt to trick customers into believing that they are not famous — often doing a poor job on purpose — until they reveal the truth for the hidden cameras.