An appearance on a local news program’s version of the Discovery Channel’s popular Dirtiest Jobs reality show turned out to be great publicity and a pat on the back for the crews at Evans Septic Tank Service in Minot, N.D.
The Varty brothers, Sandon “Dude’’ and Dallas, happily agreed to have the business featured on a segment of “Someone’s Gotta Do It,’’ with reporter Clayton Clark of the Bismarck/Mandan CBS affiliate KX News. The station was visiting the North Dakota State Fair in late July and Clark accompanied Dallas Varty as he serviced recreational vehicles parked on the grounds.
Varty was happy to hand over the hose as he emptied holding tanks and explained how the job works. Evans provides 40 portable restrooms, six hand-wash stations at the fairgrounds, which is a few blocks from their yard, and services 300-400 campers parked at the fair. Evans has served the fair for eight years.
“That thing kind of stinks,’’ Clayton said in a transcript of the segment (which you can see at www.kxmb.com/News/259499.asp). “So when I pull this out something may spill. Oh there it is. That’s what fair food will do to you. I don’t feel so good ... that pretty much says it all. I've scooped enough poop to earn this one.”
Sandon Varty, who owns the business with a third brother, Vegas, said Dallas had a good time on the news program, and that folks around Minot mentioned seeing him on the news many times afterward. He said the lighthearted look at pumping was good for the business that doesn’t do a lot of advertising, and he suggested other pumpers should consider media requests like this one.
“It’s kind of like free advertising. They generally put a positive spin on things,’’ Sandon Varty said of the humorous series of reports on tough jobs. “It never hurts to remind people that you’re around. Fortunately we’re pretty busy with word-of-mouth advertising.’’
Another nice thing is highlighting hardworking people rather than corporate leaders and celebrities all the time. Sandon Varty thinks pumpers, for example, offer an important, but largely unnoticed, service to the community.
“Nobody hears about the average guy out there getting his hands dirty on a daily basis. People don’t get to see or hear about that,’’ Varty said.
Evans Septic Tank has five employees and runs two septic service and two portable restroom trucks. The company has an inventory of 250 restrooms, mostly from Satellite Industries and Five Peaks Technology. The state fair — which attracts 250,000 people, one-third of the state’s population — is one of two big special events of the summer for Evans. The other is a Scandinavian festival, also held at the fairgrounds.
Sandon Varty said the reason for his family’s success with the business they bought a decade ago is simple.
“Do a good job for people and they seem to appreciate it and call you back,’’ he said.
Virginia Pumper Snares Vandal
Dale Wilson, owner of Wilson’s Septic Tank Service in Lynchburg, Va., came to work one Sunday morning in July to find more than $10,000 in damage to his business. Almost a dozen windshields were broken and as many portable restrooms destroyed.
Wilson had a hunch the vandals would return that night, so he hid in the shadows and waited. “The boy walked right up on me,” he says. “I pulled my pistol and told him to lie down, then I sat on top of him and dialed 911.” The 14-year-old was carrying the keys to all of Wilson’s trucks.
Later, when Wilson saw a news report about vandalism at nearby St. John Baptist Church, he recognized a familiar mark. “It was 666, written just like the ones on my trucks,” he says. Wilson contacted Campbell County investigators to report the similarities. “I told them the vandals are probably from Jefferson Forest High School, because one portable restroom was painted with JF Rules.” Wilson doesn’t want a reward. “Catching the boy was reward enough,” he says.
Catching the Local Health Department Napping
If you can’t get your local health department to crack down on chronic failing septic system complaints, take a page from Grayson, Mo., homeowner Doug Schnath. After complaining to the Clinton County Health Department about the odor and mess coming from his neighbor’s faulty septic system for eight years, Schnath called the Kansas City Fox Television “Problem Solvers’’ team.
Schnath and his tenant Sue Phelps called the Fox 4 news team and showed them the spot where septage was bubbling to the surface in their neighbor’s yard. The video account can be seen at www.myfoxkc.com, showing what Schnath and Phelps plead has to be a health code violation. The pair argued that system should have been repaired years ago.
Cut to a defensive Marsha Downs, director of the county health department.
“We’ve been working on this for a number of years and there have been promises that it will be done. We’ve become negligent not to keep on them constantly,’’ she says in the understatement of the year.
Is a Missouri onsite system installer in line for a new job? The Fox news channel promised to follow up and make sure the failing system is addressed.
– Scottie Dayton contributed to this report.
