We currently represent an Ontario, Canada based snow contracting company for sale.

The Company is a snow plow contractor specializing in managing snow removal for commercial and municipal customers in the Ontario market. The Company is over 20 years old and has an excellent reputation in its market. The Company has a consistently profitable history and has multi-year contracts with many of its customers. The owner wishes to retire from the business. However he is willing to stay on for a period to provide a smooth transition to assist with bidding, training the new owner and public relations. The Company occupies a building that is owned separately by the owner and is available for purchase. The Company has well maintained equipment and a highly trained staff. The Company maintains good documentation and a strong health and safety program. The Company is a leading edge snow contractor effectively using technology when their competition does not.

Selected financial data for the Company at March 31, 2012 are as follows:

Accounts receivable $284,321

Equipment (est FMV) 1,978,800

Accounts payable 126,690

If you are interested in potentially purchasing this business, please contact us. We will ask for you to sign a confidentiality agreement before we provide any additional information for you to review.

For more information, please contact:

Richard Sippola, Investment Banker

PJA, Inc. dba John Allin Consulting

Tel: (440) 520-5864

RICK@JOHNALLIN.COM

John Allin, Vice President

PJA, Inc. dba John Allin Consulting

Tel: (814) 452-3919

JOHN@JOHNALLIN.COM

What is noted below is a proposed (revised) law for Connecticut.  I’ve been asked my opinion on whether or not this is a good thing.  I have no objection to this Law as written.  For snow contractors to gouge people simply because of blizzard conditions is something that “brands” our industry as opportunists instead of business people.  We provide a service – one that is needed and necessary.  However, while we all want (and need) to make a profit, unrealistic and inflated profits at the expense of others living in the wrong place is not professional.  This is like saying, those who have been dealt a bad hand by tornadic activity (as was recently had in the mid-west) should be gouged unnecessarily when it comes time to rebuild their destroyed homes.

I’m in favor of this being enacted.  – and it would not bother me if every state enacted such a law.6

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 General Assembly Raised Bill No. 60

 February Session, 2012 LCO No. 705

*00705_______GL_*

 Referred to Committee on General Law

AN ACT PROHIBITING PRICE GOUGING DURING SEVERE WEATHER EVENTS.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:

Section 1. (NEW) (Effective from passage) (a) For purposes of this section, “consumer goods and services” means goods and services that are vital and necessary for the health, safety or welfare of consumers and are used, bought or rendered primarily for personal, family or household purposes, including, but not limited to, the provision of lodging, snow removal, flood abatement and post-storm cleanup or repair services.

(b) In the event that adverse weather conditions create an unusually high demand for consumer goods and services, the Governor may proclaim that a severe weather event emergency exists. Upon the proclamation of such emergency, the Governor shall post notice of such proclamation on the home page of the Internet web site of the office of the Governor. Upon determining that such severe weather event emergency has ended, the Governor shall post the end date of such emergency on such web site.

(c) During such severe weather event emergency, no person within the chain of distribution of consumer goods and services shall sell or offer to sell consumer goods or services for a price that is unconscionably excessive.

(d) (1) A determination that a violation of subsection (c) of this section has occurred shall be based, among other factors, on the following: (A) That the price for which consumer goods and services were sold or offered to be sold was unconscionably excessive, (B) that there was an exercise of unfair leverage or unconscionable means, or (C) a combination of both factors in subparagraphs (A) and (B) of this subdivision.

(2) Evidence that: (A) The price for which consumer goods and services were sold or offered to be sold represents a gross disparity between the price of the goods or services that were the subject of the  transaction and their value measured by the average price at which such consumer goods or services were sold or offered to be sold by the defendant in the usual course of business during the thirty-day period prior to a severe weather event proclamation made by the Governor pursuant to subsection (b) of this section, or (B) the price for which consumer goods and services were sold or offered to be sold grossly exceeded the price at which the same or similar goods or services were readily obtainable by other consumers in the trade area shall constitute prima facie evidence that the price is unconscionably excessive. A defendant may rebut a prima facie case with evidence that additional costs not within the control of the defendant were imposed on the defendant for such goods or services.

(e) A seller of an energy resource, as defined in subsection (a) of section 42-234 of the general statutes, shall be exempt from the provisions of this section.

(f) A violation of subsection (c) of this section shall constitute an unfair trade or deceptive practice under subsection (a) of section 42-110b of the general statutes.

(g) Each violation and each day on which the violation occurs or continues shall be a separate offense.

(h) The provisions of this section shall not be construed to limit the ability of the Commissioner of Consumer Protection or the court from finding certain acts or practices unfair or deceptive pursuant to chapter 735a of the general statutes in the absence of a severe weather event emergency proclamation made by the Governor pursuant to subsection (b) of this section.

This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:

Section 1 from passage

Statement of Purpose:

To protect consumers from price gouging during severe weather market disruptions.

A year is not an even number of days, and neither are the seasons. To try to achieve a value as close as possible to the exact length of the year, our Gregorian Calendar was constructed to give a close approximation to the tropical year, which is the actual length of time it takes for Earth to complete one orbit around the sun. It eliminates leap days in century years not evenly divisible by 400, such 1700, 1800 and 2100, and millennium years that are divisible by 4000, such as 8000 and 12000. 

Another reason is that Earth’s elliptical orbit is changing its orientation relative to the sun (it skews), which causes Earth’s axis to constantly point in a different direction, called precession. Since the seasons are defined as beginning at strict 90-degree intervals, these positional changes affect the time Earth reaches each 90-degree location in its orbit around the sun. 

The pull of gravity from the other planets also affects the location of Earth in its orbit. 

The current seasonal lengths for 2012 in the Northern Hemisphere are:

Winter: 88.994 days
Spring: 92.758 days
Summer: 93.651 days
Autumn: 89.842 

The warm seasons of spring and summer combined are 7.573 days longer than the colder seasons, fall and winter (good news for warm weather admirers). However, spring is currently being reduced by approximately one minute per year and winter by about half a minute per year.  Summer is gaining the minute lost from spring, and autumn is gaining the half-minute lost from winter. Winter is the shortest astronomical season, and with its seasonal duration continuing to decrease, it is expected to attain its minimum value — 88.71 days — by about the year 3500.