The BIAD event has honored a Douglas County company annually since 1984, based upon the following factors:
Growth in number of employees; the impact on the job market.
Increase in sales and/or unit volume; an indication of continued growth.
Capital investment; an indication of commitment to increase community capacity.
Community contributions; investment of time, skills, and resources to assist in community-oriented projects.
Alex Rubbish & Recycling was selected as the recipient of the 2024 Business and Industrial Appreciation Day (BIAD) Award by the Boards of Directors of the Alexandria Area Economic Development Commission and Alexandria Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce.
Alexandria Area Economic Development Commission
324 Broadway, Suite 101, Alexandria 320-763-4545 aaedc@alexmn.org www.livingalexarea.org
Editor: Al Edenloff Special Projects Editor: Celeste Edenloff Layout/Design: Lori Mork
‘Hometown Guys’ at Alex Rubbish
and Recycling thrive in
FAMILY BUSINESS
FUN FACTS ABOUT ALEX RUBBISH AND RECYCLING
A new garbage truck costs between $300,000 and $350,000.
The ARR garbage trucks have a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years. That’s when ARR typically sells the trucks to a smaller ma-and-pa garbage company out of the area, or scraps them out.
Depending on their routes, ARR trucks put on between 30,000 to 100,000 miles per year.
The trucks average about five miles per gallon. That’s mainly because they make between 300 to 700 stops a day and the truck’s arms move 1,400 times a day.
ARR provides service to a wide radius – Parkers Prairie to the north, half way into Pope County to the south, and all of Douglas County, east to west.
Customers have tried to get rid of all kinds of junk – vehicle parts, such as driveshafts, bathroom fixtures and faucets, and literally, the whole kitchen sink. These types of hard materials are found when a truck is dumping a load and the driver has to take it out and put it next to the garbage bin.
By Al Edenloff aedenloff@echopress.com
For this year’s Business and Industrial Appreciation Day honoree, it’s all about family and their hometown.
Alex Rubbish and Recycling was started originally by the Kluver family in 1969.
Shaynen Schmidt explains how it all began: His other company, Pro-Tainer, was started by his dad, Shane Schmidt, and is now owned by Shaynen. Pro-Tainer manufactured garbage/recycling containers for the Kluvers and Alex Rubbish.
“We also utilized their garbage service at our business and homes,” Shaynen said. “Being locally born and raised families, we became friends with the Kluver family over the years of doing business together.”
In the mid 2000s, Jerry and Wayne Kluver passed away, leaving the business in the hands of their widowed wives. Ricky Kluver, nephew of the owners and a long-time employee of Alex Rubbish, would stop at Pro-Tainer to pick up its garbage.
“When Ricky stopped to dump our garbage container, I would have occa-
sional conversations with him, which led to Ricky discussing that he would be interested in purchasing Alex Rubbish from his aunts,” said Shaynen.
During those conversations, Shaynen told Ricky that he was interested in looking at the opportunity.
“Once we decided to get serious and investigate the business further, we discussed with Shane having him come onboard with us,” Shaynen said. “After months of discussion and due diligence, the three of us ‘Hometown Guys’ became owners in 2010.”
We asked Shaynen a few questions about these Hometown Guys:
Q: Do you have a mission statement or what are your top priorities?
A: “Continue to maintain and gain customers, continue to offer competitive pay and benefits for our team, maintain quality trucks for our drivers, support the communities we service, and to continue being a locally owned company for many years to come,” Shaynen said.
Q: What are the secrets behind your company’s success?
A: “Being locally owned/operated and supporting our surrounding great local communities, having customers who support local, and continuously working
Shaynen Schmidt
on improving our customer service and efficiencies,” Shaynen said.
Q: Has your company faced challenges over the years? How did you deal with them?
A: “Our challenges have been the increased cost of maintaining and purchasing new garbage trucks,” Shaynen said. “We have implemented a better rotation of our fleet maintenance program for our fleet as well as creating a budget on replacement.
Another challenge, he added, is to make customers more aware that not all unwanted items placed in the garbage are acceptable or burnable at the Pope/Douglas incinerator along with unwanted items being mixed in with the recycling causing contamination. “We try to communicate better with customers by educating them on these items,” Shaynen added.
Q: The BIAD award recognizes a business’ involvement in the community. Could you provide some examples of how Alex Rubbish and Recycling has supported the community over the years?
A: “We donate, sponsor, and support area athletics, community events, fire departments, and many local non-profits,” Shaynen said. “One of the bigger events we support now for over five years is the Douglas County Fair. ARR provides garbage, recycling and organics services for the Douglas County Fair.
Q: How many employees do you have?
A: 21, including owners. They all live in the Alexandria area or nearby communities, including Pope County and Otter Tail.
Q: What role do your employees play in the success of your company?
A: “They are the backbone of our company, they understand the importance of customer service, and they are the faces in our office and out on our routes that our customers build relationships with,” Shaynen said.
Q: What is something the general public may not know about Alex Rubbish and Recycling?
A: “In 2010 we had an average of 1,300 customers and in 2024 we have over 8,050 customers,” Shaynen said.
Q: How did the company add so many customers in that time frame?
A: “I think it was because people were looking at other options for garbage service,” Shaynen said. “It’s our customer service, the quality of our work and our support of the community.”
ABOUT SHAYNEN SCHIMDT
Shaynen was born and raised in Alexandria and graduated from the Alexandria Technical and Community College, eventually earning a degree in business management in 2003.
He started working for the company when he was 18, working nights and weekends at Pro-Tainer.
Shaynen liked the Alexandira community so much that he never gave much thought to working someplace else.
“I wanted to stay here. I grew up in the area and felt safe yere. Everyone is willing to support each other,” he said. “I had a great childhood and I wanted to raise my children here.”
He and his wife, Angie, have been married 20 years and they have four children – Allison, a teacher in Fargo Moorhead; Spencer, who is attending St. Scholastica in Duluth; Seth, a 10th-grader in high school; and “SJ,” who is in the eighth grade.
From left, Shane Schmidt, Shaynen Schmidt and Ricky Kluver.
Schmidt enjoys the
By Celeste Edenloff Alexandria Echo Press
For the past nearly 15 years, Shane Schmidt has been part owner of Alex Rubbish and Recycling. Prior to buying the business, he and his son, Shaynen, owned Pro-Tainer, which manufactures garbage and recycling containers.
He noted that Pro-Tainer is all Shaynen’s now, though, as he sold it to him a while back.
So how did the father-son duo become partners of Alex Rubbish?
Shane said that Ricky Kluver was a long-time employee of Alex Rubbish and had known both him and his son fairly well because he would pick up garbage at their business. Plus, Pro-Tainer built all the garbage containers and roll offs for Alex Rubbish, he said.
One day when Kluver stopped at Pro-Tainer, he asked if they would be interested in being partners with him and buying the business from Kluver’s relatives.
“That’s pretty much how it got started,” said Shane. “Although actually, he (Ricky) started talking with Shaynen first.”
Shane said he really liked the business because of its local flare. And he said they already had a lot of connections with local people.
“It was the local connection that we enjoyed and we thought that we could do something with it to bring it to the next lev-
LOCAL CONNECTION
el,” he said. “Plus, it was a challenge and I like challenges.”
CHALLENGES OF THE BUSINESS
To this day, Shane said he still loves the business, but with any business, there are challenges.
In the beginning, when they first took on the garbage business, the biggest challenge was just understanding the business. For example, he said, understanding routing because it is not easy. The challenge was trying to do the routes the best they could to save the company money but yet at the same time, taking care of their customers.
He also said he didn’t realize garbage was so important to everybody in the county, which presented another challenge that still happens today.
“If you miss picking up someone’s garbage, they are calling. If you don’t pick it up or something happens, it’s major,” Shane said with a bit of laughter.
Another challenge, he said, was the growing pains. Because they wanted to grow the company, there was the challenge of trying to get containers and getting side load stuff. And, he said the trucks can really be a tough challenge because of the maintenance. What helps now, though, is that they have their own mechanic.
He also said that competition can be tough, noting that there are about four competing companies and at one time, they were probably number three.
“I don’t know where we’re at today, but in Douglas County, I’d say we’re probably number one,” said Shane. “We’ve been pretty dominant.”
When looking at the future of the business, Shane said they probably need to plan their next steps. Although for Shane, he said the next step is probably retirement.
“I just don’t know when,” he said, adding that he told Shaynen they need to put a plan together because when he decides it’s time to leave, there should be a plan in place for how they are going to move forward. His hope, he said, is to keep it in the family and have his grandsons become involved.
“Maybe we can get one of those kids to step in and take over,” he said. “That would be cool.”
BIBLE VERSES AND QUOTES
An interesting fact about the business that Shane wanted to
share is that they started putting either Bible verses or other inspirational quotes on all of their commercial containers.
He shared a story of how one of those verses helped save a young man’s life.
One day a woman from Fargo called to thank them for putting a Bible verse on a garbage container that was located in Garfield. The woman shared that her son was in the area and was contemplating suicide. Shane said the woman said her son drove to Garfield and pulled into an alley.
In the alley was the garbage can, which had the verse on it. The woman said that verse convinced her son not to do it. Instead, the young man called his mom, then drove home and spent time with family.
“He did not take his own life that day,” Shane said. “That is the story the woman shared with us.”
Shane said they have had other people who have called to thank them for the verses and quotes and that they really appreciate them.
He also said that he hasn’t really shared that story publicly, but that he thinks about it often and thought it was time to get it out there.
Shane and wife, Vickie, have two grown boys - Shaynen and Shad - along with six grandkids.
Shane Schmidt
NO EMAIL and no regrets for Ricky Kluver
He works hard and gets the job done
By Lisa Johnson Alexandria Echo Press
Ricky Kluver, partner/owner of Alex Rubbish and Recycling is one of the more unlikely executives you’ll ever run across. For one thing, he has no email address and no regrets.
“I don’t have time for any of that stuff. I got work to do.” he says.
Kluver is the nephew of the original owners of the business, and with the exceptions of a stint in the Army and some time working in asphalt in Omaha, has spent the majority of his working life in the family business.
And Kluver works hard. He has no regrets about that, either.
“I like to work,” he says. “Even if I’m not doing this, I would be
working. I had all my fun up to about 40 and I said finally I had to change. I raced cars. I played a whole bunch of baseball and softball. Because here’s the thing: the stuff I did up to 40, I would have never been able to do after I retired. I would’ve been too old to do it.”
His work ethic is something else he has no regrets about.
“Anybody I’ve worked with, I say, ‘I’ll never tell you to do something that I haven’t already done.’ I will never do that.”
“I know one thing – the job is a lot different than it was when I first grew up,” he adds. “We were hanging on the back, throwing cans and all that stuff. And now we don’t. Yeah. I sit in the truck, I pick the stuff up, it’s a lot easier. And that stuff keeps me moving. Otherwise I’d sit at home or at a desk – I’d be more lazy. There’s plenty to do at the house, too. But it doesn’t interest me as much as the stuff I do now. And it keeps me going be-
cause I gotta get up, I gotta go do my route.”
Ricky Kluver is not a pack rat. And that he has one regret about. One big, big regret.
“The only thing I regret is all the baseball, football, cards and all that stuff I kept, because I love playing baseball and all that stuff. I had a huge box,” Kluver says. And while he wasn’t
tempted to cherry-pick things like furniture, he did find a lot of baseball and other sports cards.
“They would fall out of there and I would pick them up and take them home. That’s the only thing I regret,” Kluver says. “I know now what some of those babies would be worth. I know I had some old cards because I used to look through them.”
So did he sell his collection?
“Naw,” he says. “Threw them all back in the garbage. I did that like, 35 years ago. Threw them all.”
Ricky Kluver
She’s the
‘SWISS ARMY KNIFE’
By Sam Stuve Alexandria Echo Press
Peggy Engstrom has been working at Alex Rubbish and Recycling for a little over two and a half years and has loved the atmosphere in the office.
Engstrom said, “It’s a great place to work at. [When I was searching for a job] it seemed like it was going to be a nice atmosphere.”
Engstrom can be described as a Swiss army knife for Alex Rubbish and Recycling. She is the office manager.
of the business
“I do all the accounts receivable for the landfill,” Engstrom said. “I take phone calls from customers. I do invoices for DCDL and ARR and do some reporting. I do anything that has to do with all the commercial accounts.”
Engstrom said her colleagues are very understanding of how much work she has on her plate.
“My employers are very aware of what’s going on, and they aren’t demanding. They just give you your job and let you do it. There’s no microman-
Peggy Engstrom
aging, and it helps make a nice atmosphere.”
While Engstrom does enjoy her job, there are some challenges that come with it of course.
Engstrom said one of her biggest challenges is coordinating things.
“What’s challenging is making sure that things are getting where they belong, and then getting them picked up when they need to be, getting things
removed when they need to be,” Engstrom said.
Engstrom is originally from Two Harbors, Minnesota. She then lived in Eagle Bend before moving to southern Minnesota. She also lived in Duluth at one point in her life.
Engstrom’s husband is originally from Kensington. They moved back to the Alexandria area 26 years ago and have stayed.
UHDE
is glad he made the switch
By Celeste Edenloff Alexandria Echo Press
Jason Uhde has one year under his belt working full-time for Alex Rubbish and Recycling. But, he also worked part-time for the company, helping out on weekends, for about eight years.
When asked what made him finally decide to go full-time, Uhde laughed and then bluntly said, “Because Shaynen (Schmidt, an owner) is persistent. He’s been after me for probably 15 or 16 years.”
Uhde stated again that Schmidt was persistent and for the longest time just wouldn’t take no for an answer.
Uhde had previously worked for Alexandria Industries and True North Transport. But about a year ago, he said Schmidt’s persistence paid off and he was successful in getting Uhde to commit to a full-time position.
Besides filling in for the garbage truck drivers when needed, Uhde works in customer service. He will answer phone calls, but his priorities lie in organizing and scheduling the roll-off side of the business.
When people call in and order a roll-off – a large dumpster – he handles all the details. When asked what he likes about his job, Uhde said the variety of different things he gets to do.
“I can either hop in the truck and drive for a while or I can come back and just relax in the air-conditioned office when it’s nice and hot out,” he said.
As for challenges, Uhde had to think for a bit and then he laughed and said, “Customers.”
He then elaborated and said, “Even though 99% are good, you’ll still get the bad apples. Trying to make sure the customers are always happy can be challenging, but there will be some you’ll just never please.”
A couple of fun facts that Uhde shared about the business is that many people don’t realize that Alex Rubbish and Recycling offers roll-off service. He said he’s had friends that have said to him, “We didn’t know you even offered that service.”
Jason Uhde
AMAZING place to work An
By Celeste Edenloff Alexandria Echo Press
Although she has only worked at Alex Rubbish and Recycling for less than a year, Myla Jo Hiltner said it is an amazing place to work.
After seeing an ad for the job and thinking it looked like an interesting place to work, Hiltner said she applied and got the job. She is very happy she got the job, which she said is, “basically the front desk person.”
“I really enjoy working here,” she said. “The owners are wonderful to work for. They don’t micromanage, they give you a task, tell you what they need done and let you do it.”
She added that if she has questions or an interesting situation comes up, it is really easy to go to the owners as they are very open to discussing options and helping out on how things can be taken care of.
Her responsibilities include a variety of tasks, including answering the phones, greeting customers who come into the office, taking payments, setting up accounts, daily deposits and more.
As for challenges of her job, Hiltner said there are not many, but she would probably say the customers who are unhappy.
“There are sometimes challenging phone calls or challenging customers,” she said,
Myla Jo Hiltner
adding that every business has those people who yell at you when they are not happy. But Hiltner said they work through it and try to help as best they can.
“The owners are truly kind and caring,” she said. “They care for their customers and they re-
ally want the best for them.”
Hiltner and her husband, Jim, live in Osakis. They have three grown children – Bella, 27; Beth, 25 and Ethan, 23.
EASY and simple gig
By Jake Sutherland Alexandria Echo Press
A little over eight years ago LeRoy Golden was looking for a part-time job – something to do on the weekends.
He’d worked for years at a company where he’d served as a welder and a truck driver, hauling materials to five different plants, so he figured working as a truck driver at Alex Rubbish and Recycling could be a good fit.
He worked one weekend and then signed on full time.
“This is the easiest job I’ve had in my life,” Golden laughed. “You just press the button and drive down the road, and I love driving. The hardest part is waking up at 5 a.m., but you get used to it I guess.”
He said that during his time on the road he’s seen some interesting things – things that can give a person plenty to think about in the early hours of the morning, but most of the time it’s an easy and simple gig that gets him home in the early afternoon to enjoy the rest of his day.
As far as ARR is concerned, Golden said he hasn’t worked for a better company.
“It’s 100 percent about the people that work here; that goes a long way,” Golden said. “If the bosses say they’re going to do something, they’ll do it. And if an employee has an idea to make the job better, the bosses will do everything they can to make it happen. These are the best bosses I’ve ever worked for.”
LeRoy Golden
GARBAGE TRUCK DRIVER sees beauty in his work
By Lisa Johnson Alexandria Echo Press
Corky Schnoor of Alex Rubbish and Recycling came back to Minnesota almost 10 years ago, after 22 years in Seattle. Like a lot of people these days, he has family in Minnesota he needed to be on hand to help. He’s also been “in garbage,” as he puts it, for 37 years this fall. Seattle’s infamously gloomy weather didn’t phase him a bit. “Depends on the person,” he says. “Me, I enjoyed it. For what we do, it’s perfect working conditions ‘cause it’s cool. Yeah, I would say half the time it’s cloudy out, but it’s never as bad as everybody makes it
sound. Beautiful area. Beautiful.”
And even though a garbage truck isn’t anything like an ice cream truck, turns out the drivers have a lot in common. When asked what he likes most about his job, Schnoor says, “For me, it’s driving the truck. I mean, the little kids, you know, doing this,” he said while miming the universal gesture for blow your horn. “You know, honking the horn and whatnot. I enjoy what I do for a living. I don’t have any regrets in what I do.”
Schnoor takes a lot of pride in the work he does. “Hey, personally, I enjoy doing the job. I come to work every day with
a smile on my face because I know what I’m doing. I know that I’m taking care of something and nobody wants to do it, you know, I’m happy to take care of it for them.”
He’s also pretty happy with who he does the work for.
“That’s something that I like about a family-owned company. It’s that the knowledge we have of each other makes us
get along fairly well. I mean, you still fight like brothers and sisters, but you get over it, you know? You got to work together. And you’ve got a history and you got a shared goal. But when you’re a corporate business, that’s a different thing because you’re just a number to them.”
Corky Schnoor
REMEMBER TO leave garbage bins out
By Jake Sutherlin Alexandria Echo Press
Mike Dulas has been driving trucks for over 44 years; roughly 15 of those years have been for Alex Rubbish and Recycling.
At one point during those 15 years, he moved to Colorado for a year, but he ended up moving right back and joining up with the ARR crew again.
“The main thing I like about working here is the people,” Dulas said. “I get along with the people I work for and with, and that makes it much easier to stay after all these years.”
When asked to explain the job he’s done for so many
years, Dulas laughed, “I just drive around all day!”
“I’ll probably have the radio on or something, but all I do is run the side-loader, let it go up then down and move on to the next spot,” Dulas added. “It’s not very technical. I don’t play any video games, and all we’ve got is a joystick, and I seem to do just fine.”
In addition to working for a good company, Dulas said the job itself can be rewarding. Most of the people he meets during his time on the road appreciate the work he does. Sometimes on hot summer days, they’ll bring him out a cold water or soda and want to have a conversation.
“I intermingle with a lot of the people I come across, and I think that makes the job easier,” Dulas said. “If there are ever any problems or ques-
tions, they’re comfortable just coming up and talking to me, and we can sort it out.”
