Druba family no longer hauling Superior trash

A generic trash truck that looks a lot like the one John Druba Trash Hauling used can still be found roaming Superior but it know longer has the Druba name emblazed along the side. That's because after nearly 40 years in the business of picking up and hauling Superior's trash, the Druba family is no longer in the trash business.

At the start of this year John Druba sold the business to Baker & Sons, a longtime competitor for Superior's trash.

A bittersweet day for Druba Trash Hauling...

Elmer and Helen Druba started the business in 1954, one year before John was born. Their first truck wasn't anything like the compactor trucks now used to transport trash. It was a used, orange colored truck much like those the farmers were then using.

As he roamed the town serving his customers, Elmer would dump large 50-gallon metal drums full of trash or ashes over the side of this truck and then climb up in the back and stomp the trash down by foot to make for more room.

Unlike now, it was then legal for home owners to burn their trash and many did. The "dump" was located near town. It was open 24/7 and some hauled their own trash and there were other commercial haulers at least one of which gathered trash with a pickup truck.

In addition to hauling trash, Elmer also delivered freight which came into Superior via the railroads. Among his freight customers was The Superior Express. When the Express received a carload of newsprint, it was Elmer's job to get the nearly six-foot long rolls of paper out of the boxcar and delivered to The Express where they were tucked away in the basement until needed. It was all done without the assistance of hydraulic lifts that would be used today.

Elmer told numerous stories about hauling garbage, but one that stands out in the family's member started when he was hauling a load of trash to the dump then located in a former sandpit northeast of Superior. Elmer said he was en route to the dump when he looked out his side mirror and saw flames and smoke rolling from the back of the truck. He immediately stopped the truck, jumped out and dumped the load in the middle of the road. He said it was either dump the load or let the truck burn and he wasn't about to do that.

When the fire department arrived to put the fire out, Elmer was quick to stop them in their tracks. He said something like, "If you put this fire out, you're all gonna have a pile of trash to clean-up, so I advise you just let it burn.".

In those days most of the trash hauled to the dump was eventually burned.

Before regulators closed the Superior dump, Elmer hauled trash to various locations. In addition to the dumps sites which were located in sandpits, For a time the Superior trash was dumped in a former river bed west of the Highway 14 bridge over the Republican River. In the 1970s, the state suggested the trash be dumped in pits dug east of the sewage treatment plant.

Each month, Helen Druba walked the town hand delivering the monthly statements as she considered sending them via mail would have been "too expensive."

The early trash collection rates were 25 cents per month for weekly pick-up and 50 cents per month for twice a week pick-up.

Elmer ran the route for 33 years with the help of his sons, John, Roger and Randy. He retired from the business at 56 years of age and sold it to John in 1987.

John upgraded trucks and owned 4 different compactor trucks. He hauled trash to 4 locations including the Dennis Way Recycling Center north of Superior and the Fairbury, Grand Island and Hastings landfills.

John son's Tj shared a story about the Druba trash business on social media and included a story about the time he was helping his dad and Mike Webber pickup trash at the Superior High School after a circus had been in town. After dumping a dumpster into the compactor truck, they cycled the truck to compact the trash. Little did they know that the giant black bags contained elephant waste that had been scooped up after the circus visit. When the bags began to pop, Mike Webber took a face full and Mike had to be taken home to clean up.

Tj said "Dad was often given a hard time by his close friends and family about his "short" work hours and perks of being his own boss. He knew it was all in good fun and would give his typical snicker laugh and be quick to argue back.

"What many didn't realize is that the "off by noon" they were quick to joke about was really much more than just that. It was the stuff that people didn't see like writing bills, marking checks, stuffing envelopes, listening to messages, returning phone calls, setting up new customers, regular truck maintenance, repairing dumpsters and carts, trips to Lincoln to buy carts, dumpsters and truck parts, truck breakdowns, and tracking accounting expenses and quarterly reports. Don't get me wrong, there may have been a nap or two in there somewhere throughout the years. Oh and maybe a few afternoons of fishing or hunting, but that's besides the point.

"I can honestly say what amazes me most about my dad is that in 35 years of owning the business he never had a single sick day, not one day of personal time off, no such thing as a snow day, and not a day of vacation that he didn't have to make up all while driving the routes six days per week!

"I hauled trash alongside my dad for many years and it was always my intentions to take over the family business and even pass it down to my boys. His work ethic, dedication and drive he put into his business made me the person I am today. It's for that exact reason that I have found the success that I have in my career in Lincoln. Some days I think I'm crazy for passing on the opportunity. If it were up to my wife, Keshia, we would be living in Superior and I'd be hauling trash tomorrow.

"So after 68 years of Druba Trash Hauling and 35 years of my father owning the route, I'd like to congratulate him on his retirement!"