'Ol stompin grounds

I had the privilege of working in my former territory yesterday with one of my DNR colleagues, Scott Flagg. Scott is a DNR newby - hired in September from the great state of Missouri. He's probably in his late 20's, and had worked for Missouri DNR before being laid off. He's a quiet guy, but has a seriously dry sense of humor. Scott is our technical expert on staff - so when I want to know something about, say deer carcass composting, he is all over it like flies on, well...dead deer.

Our section, Financial and Business Assistance is doing outreach to my old "planning area" Adams, Taylor and Union counties because they continue to get more and more trash. We want to provide assistance to planning areas across Iowa and decided to use a place I know well as a "test area" (I nearly said dummy but that would sound bad...).

So I got to come home on Wednesday night, and Scott arrived in my driveway the next a.m. I didn't invite him in - didn't want to start any rumors ya know...(besides he said he didn't need to tinkle). I hopped in the driver's seat of the beater Ford station wagon - it sounded like a helicopter was hovering above me. We headed down the backroads to Corning - stopping in Prescott to check out the recycling bin. I wanted Scott to get a feel for recycling in the area. The bin has seen better days...

We had luck at Corning City Hall - the clerk had time to chat about how things are going. That town is in the midst of negotiating their trash hauling contract. We had stopped to take pics of their recycle bin on our way into town - it's on a newly poured concrete pad. Much nicer than the gravel they used to have back in my day.

Then it was on to Bedford. On the trip I regaled Scott with stories of my days as the recycling coordinator/educator. I would visit the closed Adams/Taylor Landfill to record methane monitoring measurements. It is a very remote location, so I would wear extra clothes and then would strip down to get rid of ticks before jumping back into the truck. I learned that lesson the hard way - crawling with ticks while driving back to Creston! Another time a pheasant nearly scared the crap out of me as I made my way around the landfill. It was a little eerie out there.

We visited the new recyle bins in Bedford. I was a part of obtaining the bins as a part of a grant application. After Bedford, I dragged Scott through Kent on the way back to Creston - it was sad but actually less scary than the last time I went through that town. Phew. Then we toured the City Carton Recycling facility and met with that manager, then onto a meeting with the Creston mayor. I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed the day! It was nice to work with people in towns, and not be sitting in my cubicle. It didn't hurt that it was a gorgeous day!

I loved cruising the back roads of the 3-county area, speaking to Kiwanis groups and talking to city clerks. I didn't even mind sorting through household hazardous waste. It was the politics and realities of running a landfill that I didn't like at all. It kept me up at night - the stress. I don't miss that at all. I think Scott enjoyed the day too - in fact he titled his memo about the trip "Scott and Leslie's Excellent Adventure".