What a difference a month makes! We were going strong and looking to exceed our volume from February and BOOM, the Corona Virus hit. As of March 20th, we are at 8,150 pounds. With the schools cancelled and most County offices closed to the public, we have been forced to scale back on our pickups. All trailer pickups which include Payne, Grover Hill, Scott, Haviland, Latty and Junction have been cancelled until May 1. We will be evaluating as time passes and hopefully be back up and running by then.
Many of you have been asking me about my on-going battle with learning to hook up the trailers to the F-350. Because we could all use a little bit of levity in our lives, I will tattle on myself. Don’t tell the Commissioners any of this…
I had to lower the 28’ trailer onto the hitch/ball thing of the 350 to prepare for the Junction Run. I thought I had it ready to go and even drove around the Engineering Garage Compound to make sure all was well a few days before the scheduled Run. The big day arrived and I very confidently began my departure from the Engineering Garage. As I was making the circle to come out onto Wayne Street, I felt and heard a rather loud noise and a big bump. I had noticed a couple of smaller bumps as I was getting to the street but thought it was just the weight of the trailer adjusting, etc.. Please understand that I really don’t know what’s normal for trailers of that size when it comes to their noises or how it should feel as I’m pulling it. I am, however, getting a very fast education on what isn’t normal!
Because the jolt and the accompanying noise was so loud, I did stop and get out to see if anything looked amiss. The equivalent experience would be you looking for the O-Rings on a spaceship. Even to my untrained eye, however, there was clearly a problem because the front of the trailer was under the bumper of the F-350. Ooops….
Happily, Cindy Peters, County Engineer employee extraordinaire, was right behind me thinking she was leaving for lunch but stopped instead to render assistance. Together, we determined that we had no clue what to do, so Cindy offered to go find, yes, you guessed it, Ron Wirts, our County Engineer’s Shop/Fleet Supervisor, who yet again, came to my rescue. He came walking down the long driveway from the office to the street carrying what appeared to me to be a rather large sledgehammer. At that point I wasn’t sure just exactly what he was going to do with it given my penchant for breakdowns.
To his credit, he calmly evaluated the situation, determined that I had in fact, NOT lowered the trailer securely onto the hitch/ball. As a result, the only thing keeping the truck and trailer together were 2 very large and heavy chains. As such, the trailer with nothing to stop it, eventually came off the ball and ran up under the truck. After some pulling forward, backing up, and a few whacks with the sledgehammer, Ron Wirts, had your Paulding County WMEA Director back up and running and headed to Junction.
The upside to all these mishaps is that I’m learning a lot about trucks, trailers and what not to do. I’m slowly but surely discovering what is normal and more importantly, what is not. The downside is that I’ve had to increase my blood pressure medicine on the days I take the big trailer out.
As a reminder, the Latty and Briceton pickups have been combined and once we resume regular service, will be the second Wednesday of the month from 2:30-3:00. Location for pickup will be at the Latty Park/Village Meeting Hall by the post office.
Until things get back to normal, we have Erie Recycling in Antwerp, Kohart’s in Broughton and Real Waste in Oakwood. They are open and ready to accept your recycling.
Fellow residents of Paulding County, we have to hang in there, stay safe, wash our hands, take care of each other, find things to laugh about and always remember, THIS TOO SHALL PASS.
—Shannon Ruschel,
WMEA Program Director/Paulding County
