ServiceSweeperTask and ServicePropertiesHelper have code that assumes
ServiceProperties.TIMEOUT is a Calendar, but a string is found in the properties
collection (gets there directly from the XML parser without conversion into a
Calendar). Removing "<properties name=timeout value=.../>" from the service
description lets proceed. 

Solutions: a) change the code to assume it is a String 
b) insert value conversion stage between XML parsing and filling the Service
Properties collections; add explicit types in the service properties description