What do you when the garbage truck breaks down? The response from most trash collectors would be that someone else will figure it out. Patagonia, happily, employs people with initiative, and when the town’s garbage truck broke down earlier this winter, Francisco (“Poncho”) Valenzuela and Everardo (“Pio”) Gonzalez, who live in town, used their own pickup trucks and trailer to do the twice-weekly trash pickup along with their third man, Manuel Cardenas. This new routine required several bumpy trips up the road to the dump each Monday and Friday. No one asked them to do this. They saw a problem and fixed it.
According to those who know, this is not surprising. Patagonia is fortunate in having a crew of excellent workers keeping the town functioning and tidy. This was highlighted by the retirement of Arsenio de la Ossa on February 21. He worked for the town for 21 years, starting out as a mechanic in the maintenance department and retiring as superintendent of that department. People say, “If you needed something done or you wanted to know what was going on in the town, you asked Arsenio.”
As the next chapter of the town’s garbage truck unfolds, we can report that Poncho Valenzuela (also an accomplished team roper) has already passed the written part of his commercial license test. The practical part is still ahead.
Congratulations to Arsenio and many thanks to the rest of the town’s employees.