Michael Nawa Wins 2020 Alan Curtis Industry Service Award

Posted February 2020 Michael Nawa was a power sweeping contractor for 44 years before selling his very successful business and retiring. However, even in retirement Michael has chosen to remain actively involved in the sweeping industry via making himself available as a consultant to other contractors. Michael Nawa was rewarded for his many years of service to power sweeping at the 2020 National Pavement Exposition. As part of our coverage of this industry luminary — and to catalog for posterity his remembrances of the relative beginnings of the parking lot sweeping industry — this article includes a 30-minute audio podcast, linked at the end, that discusses parking area sweeping’s early years as well as an overview of how Michael’s experiences can be of assistance to other contractors. The following is the wording that was used in Michael Nawa’s award presentation of the Alan Curtis Industry Service Award, which automatically also includes him in the PAVEMENT Hall of Fame:

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If for no other reason, Michael Nawa received Pavement’s 2020 Alan Curtis Industry Service Award as possibly the originator — and certainly one of the originators — of the National Pavement Expo’s conference program, which has driven the event and helped thousands of contractors succeed in the paving and pavement maintenance industry. And that’s outside of everything he’s done advocating for the sweeping industry. In addition to being involved in National Contract Sweepers Institute and Contract Sweepers Institute — both early incarnations of the North American Power Sweeping Association (NAPSA) — Michael has served on the NAPSA Board and was a Founding Member and currently serves on the Board of World Sweeping Association. In 2018 he received the WSA’s Award of Excellence in Power Sweeping. In 1993 Nawa was named to the Pavement Advisory Board, where he began a 27-year run of offering insights into the direction of the magazine as well as the direction and content of the NPE conference. He steps down from the Pavement Board this year. In 2017 Nawa sold his company, Custom Maintenance Services, and today consults with contractors, encouraging them to use sweeping as the basis for pursuing other work.

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You will find our audio podcast, conducted by Ranger Kidwell-Ross, Director of WSA, to provide an interesting historical perspective of what the early days of parking lot sweeping were like; how and why the industry has grown extensively since then; tips and reminders about what it takes to be successful as a sweeping contractor; and, details about Nawa’s offer to provide consulting to contractors who would benefit from his 4+ decades of experience at running a sweeping company, one that provided complete exterior maintenance services to its parking lot sweeping customers.