One man's trash can be another man's fortune – just ask Mexico businessman Bill Fountain, who recently announced his retirement, and the selling of his 44-year disposal business. Cha-ching!
The long-standing servant of the community ran his final route Wednesday, and afterwards turned his keys over to the company's new owner, Dayne's Waste Disposal.
That transaction almost got past The Ledger, but we have ways of finding out things. Given that Fountain Disposal Service has been a long-standing fixture in this community, we couldn't resist finding out what Fountain planned to do with his newfound freedom – without that 3 a.m. wake-up call, and the friendly faces he encountered along his routes.
When asked Wednesday what was the best part of his job, Fountain first responded with his signature chuckle saying, "getting done." Then, he added, "I guess the people."
"You meet people and learn a lot," he told The Ledger. "And, there are so many people you can learn from, and ease your way into doing things. I never would have thought I could stay together this long with all the other competition out there. But I did, and I thank everyone who helped me get here, very much."
Fountain's Disposal Service – established in March 1964 – was surprisingly born out of a necessity, not a business venture, Fountain said.
"It was kind of weird how it started," he explained. As a kid, about 15 or 16, Fountain said his parents lived on Lafayette Street, and whenever they would cook it was customary to throw their trash out the back door into a pile. When the pile got big, Fountain and his siblings would have the chore of cleaning the yard. At that time, he said the city had gotten out of the business, and area citizens were responsible for hauling their own trash to the landfill.
"We would load the hay truck with side boards on it and clean the yard. When the neighbors saw us doing it, they asked if we'd do theirs and pay us to haul it off." And so, the company began, Fountain said.
Servicing mainly rural residential areas, the family ran the business for yearswith only an old gray 3/4 ton pick up, covering a 20-mile radius, northeast and southwest of Mexico – including the company's oldest and, back then, biggest run – Route JJ.
"My dad did the driving, and we did the loading," Fountain recalled, shrugging his shoulders, with a laugh.
Fountain would continue to run the business on and off with his own sons, but primarily by himself – in addition to the full-time job he held at National Refractories, and other trades he possessed. Then in 1980, as the only privately-owned disposal service in town, he "cornered the market" by adding commercial clientele.
At the close of the sale, he had a fleet of three compactor trucks, and 1,050 customers.
"If I would have been thinking, I should have bought up a bunch of trucks and made it hard for any other businesses to come in," Fountain noted, still thinking like a true entrepreneur. "But, I've done well and I can't complain.
"I just hope Dayne works with them like we did."One thing Fountain prided most about his company's reputation was its "customer first" motto. In 1963, he was presented with the Outstanding Young Religious Leader Award, for one of his numerous community projects – hauling  trash, free of charge, for people unable to pay for city services. And, up until the time he sold it, he still offered free and special services to his elderly customers, to include walking up to their houses and retrieving the trash off the front porch.
"It's the little things that set us aside from the others," he said.
Many things have changed in the four decades Fountain operated his business. Compactor trucks, he said, sure beat the "back breaking" job of getting on and off the truck.
"That was probably the biggest thing because it made the workload a lot easier," Fountain said, further noting the changes in how trash is handled.
"Used to be, you just backed down and threw the trash in a hole. Today, the landfill has liners between the ground and the trash that help drain any liquids from the trash to a holding tank, which is later hauled off to a designated area for chemical waste.
"And, then there's recycling. We didn't have that either."
Hauling trash to some people may seem like a rather "foul" job. But to Fountain, it was his way of helping the environment, while making an honest living.
"To me, trash hauling was me doing my deed for the city and surrounding areas," he said. "Unlike today, there was a time when you could ride down the road and see mattresses and trash laying out. I feel like I did my part environmentally by picking it up and taking it where it belonged."
Fountain's first gift to himself for reaching retirement, will be a trip to Las Vegas in February. But, don't think with all this idle time on his hands that he won't still be around. It's likely he will still frequent the Moose Lodge, or the bowling alley, with a beer in his hand.
"It's been some good years and the people have been good," the 66-year-old Fountain said. "But, I'm at the age to do something different and enjoy myself. Now, all I have to do is get Deb (his wife) out, so we can enjoy it together."