“Somebody’s got to do it,” Jimmy Boeken said, while standing on a curb that runs along East Douglas Street in Iola. THE THREE men gave each other a pensive look when asked about what they actually see when they bring in a day’s load of trash. “WHEN I first started, I thought it was just going to be picking up trash cans,” West said.
Normally a smile doesn’t follow a statement like that, but Boeken, along with David Harrison and Kendall West, were nothing but grins Friday morning.
The three make up the sanitation service for the City of Iola, picking up the trash from around the city and carting it out to the Allen County landfill. It’s a demanding, difficult, rewarding, smelly and often-underappreciated job. But, like Boeken said, somebody must do it — and these men mean to make the best out of it.
“There are good days and there are bad days,” West said. The three took a break in their route to give The Register an inside glimpse of what it means to be a “trash guy” in Iola.
Friday seemed to be a good day.
Streets Superintendent Dan Leslie said Fridays are the lightest work days for the crew; they spend the morning doing their usual route, and then wash the trucks in the afternoon. The day was cool, not cold, with temperatures hovering in the 40s. When the weather is right, they said, the job has its perks.
The three work from 5 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday through Friday, which gives them more time with their family or to work other jobs, or to simply relax.
Leslie said the men haul an average of eight tons of trash per day. For holidays and weekend pickups, their loads can get as much as 12 or 13 tons in a day’s work. They have a second trash truck they bring in for days like those.
“I think I have the record on the old truck,” Boeken said. He is the driver, with a commercial driver’s license. He said he hauled 13 tons in one truck.
The crew makes around 500 stops a day, and all of the work is done by hand. The city of Iola does not have any automated trash pickup like many other cities.
“I think they’re some of the hardest working guys day-in and day-out,” Leslie said, not to mention their attitude. “Those guys have the best attitude.”
It’s an important attritube, he said. It goes without saying that their job doesn’t always have them coming home smelling like roses.
“I don’t think you can write those in the paper,” Harrison said, when asked about some of his strangest finds.
“You can definitely tell when people start fishing,” Boeken said with a laugh. They said they have found deer carcasses, mounds of dead fish, and worse.
West said just the other week he picked up what he thought was just a piece of garbage, unfortunately it was a cat that had “expired.”
“There was definitely a dead cat in there,” he said, concluding his morbid tale.
It’s all in a day’s work.
“When I’m told my gloves aren’t allowed in the truck, I get new ones,” West said. He has worked for the department for only around five months. Harrison has been there two years, and Boeken is the senior member of the crew at four years on the job.
When Harrison’s work day is over, he likes to go home and see the family — he is a foster parent, which takes up a good chunk of his time. West is currently looking for a parttime job, and Boeken takes the time to relax.
Like Leslie said, the men are “out in it” despite the weather or conditions. Harrison said they try their best not to take breaks during the cold days, because it’s tough to get out of the truck cab after you get used to its warmth. The City of Iola provides them with adequate cold-weather gear and equipment.
“It sounds simple…,” Harrison said.
Most people do a good job of following city regulations, but not all of them. With 500 stops a day, the crew needs all of the cooperation they can get.
“I swear, people decide to set out cardboard right when it rains,” Harrison said. “I don’t know why.”
They said the best advide they can give people is to secure their trash as well as possible. A quick grab and go is much easier than having to handle a torn bag or track down trash flying around a yard. Also, trash recepticles must be on the curb; the crew will not go onto yards to pickup trash, unless they are assisting elderly customers upon request.
Oftentimes during a rain storm, people put their trash underneath an awning, where the water can drain into the bags and cans — that doesn’t help either.
Overall, however, the crewman said people are pretty good about following the rules, and it’s not always a thankless job.
“People will come out and say thank you,” Boeken said.
“All of the kids love the trash truck,” Harrison added. “They always come out waving.”
It’s obvious that working a rigorous, unseen job, requires taking notice of the little things — whether it’s a wave or a simple “thank you.”
It takes some of the smell out of their job, it seems, and Leslie said they may not know it, but the city appreciates what they do on a daily basis.
“People set their clocks by these guys,” he said.
THE CITY’S UNSUNG HEROES
