A community outreach program in Gillette has kids all excited about trash.
The ice cream man may be the Pied Piper of neighborhood streets, but city garbage trucks just might be getting way more attention this summer.
It all began with a successful campaign launched last fall when students at local elementary schools were asked to come up with names for the city’s snowplows. Streets operator Amy Berkey had seen a similar thing done where she worked previously in South Dakota.
Skylar Riehemann, solid waste manager for the city, called the outreach campaign a “no-brainer.”
With the green light from upstairs, the Campbell County School District got to work and before long, every city snowplow in Gillette had a name.
Now, the plan is to build on previous success and get to naming the city’s garbage trucks. Riehemann said there are fewer of those than snow plows — just eight full-size trash trucks and one pickup — so it seems apparent Gillette produces more snow than throw.
Trash Talk
“The kids love it. They see these big trucks on their route out there and they lose their minds,” Riehemann said. “Before I was manager, I was out there driving and I could tell you what time of day it was by which kids were banging on my windows.
“Every day, they have so many questions for operators. You know, you forget how cool this equipment is when you are around it all day.”
When Berkey first proposed the snowplow naming idea and every city staffer and official was getting excited about it, Riehemann said he had it in the back of his mind to extend the plan to the waste management side of things.
“But I didn’t want to steal Amy’s thunder,” he said.
Now that plow drivers have had their turn in the sun, it’s time to make heroes of the city’s trash troops, Riehemann thought.
Plus, the city’s garbage trucks lend themselves to more artistic imagination by virtue of their design. Every rig has a giant white space on each side — a veritable rolling billboard.
That’s where TyAnn Woodall comes in.
Sir Dumps A Lot will be emblazoned across a Gillette garbage truck, thanks to the creativity of students at Wagonwheel Elementary School. (Cowboy State Daily Staff) 
Hillcrest Elementary School in Gillette came up with the name Bag Boys for a city garbage truck. (Cowboy State Daily Staff)
Artistic Tie-In
“She’s been so awesome with this. We cannot do this without her,” Riehemann said of the department’s sign and signal technician.
A sign and signal technician’s job is about as boring as the title makes it sound. Woodall makes stop signs. The room for expressing creativity in a stop sign is nil. It must be red, octagonal, and there is really only one way to spell S-T-O-P.
A “Speed Limit 35” doesn’t offer much in the way of riffing, either.
But how Woodall shines when the nomenclature opportunity hit her desk.
“She really ran with this, went above and beyond,” Riehemann noted.
The city of Gillette does everything in-house using software, materials and manufacturing just as it would with producing a new sign. Tapping the creativity of Woodall is icing on the cake.
With the snowplows, Woodall took the name suggestions and fleshed out the vision even more by adding graphic elements.
“They came to me and initially I was told to just cut the names of the snowplows,” Woodall said. “I thought, I can do something better to make it stand out more, to make it more fun with artwork the kids would enjoy.”
Riehemann was floored with the mockups. His bosses were equally pleased, and the Gillette City Council couldn’t wait to sign off on the final product.
The proof in the pudding, though, was the kids. And they were beyond ecstatic.
Kids Go Crazy
Snowplows visited each school for an official showing last fall, and the response was overwhelming. Kids tugged on their parents’ sleeves anytime they saw a snowplow go by and exclaimed, “That’s our plow!”
“It’s been a really neat partnership, exciting for the students,” said Campbell County School District Deputy Superintendent Kirby Eisenhauer. “There is an educational component with kids learning about safety with the plow trucks, and learning where does a bag of garbage go after it leaves the house with the garbage trucks.
“Our younger students are infatuated with machinery and big trucks, and are super excited to be able to contribute to something they can see out on the streets.”
Woodall has a few of the early designs finished for the garbage truck project. She shared those with Cowboy State Daily.
Nine schools submitted names through assignments particular to each elementary school. The results are:
- Trashzilla: Lakeview Elementary School
- Sir Dumps a Lot: Wagonwheel Elementary
- Bag Boys: Hillcrest Elementary
- Nector the Collector: Sunflower Elementary
- Mt. Trashmore: Paintbrush Elementary
- Mega Muncher: John Paul II Catholic School
- Hop, Skip & Dump: Buffalo Ridge Elementary
- Ernest King of Garbage: Pronghorn Elementary
- Oscar: Conestoga Elementary
Each driver is assigned a truck and takes great pride in his or her own rig. Name-claiming became fiercely competitive, Riehemann said. When the dust settled, each operator had chosen a name for a truck, and all that remains is to see them applied later this month.
Woodall will work the final product into a decal for application twice the size of the snowplow signs and much more detailed. She will use the same weather-resistant vinyl as she does in sign production.
Positive Feedback, Bright Future
Originally, the plan was to rename city trucks annually. Every two or three years might be more realistic after seeing the amount of work that goes into it, even though budget costs are minimal.
“Initially, I wanted to wrap the entire side of the truck, but my boss had to reel me in a little bit,” Riehemann said. “And with how often we can do this, well, sometimes I just ask for stuff before I think it through. I should probably ask TyAnn first what she is able to do.”
The decals have been holding up nicely on the snowplows through a Wyoming winter and washing two to three times a week. There is no reason to believe the signs should need anything more than a touch up for years.
The city hopes to have all the trash trucks ready by May 22 to show students. School closes May 26.
Jake Nichols can be reached at: Jake@CowboyStateDaily.com
