THE TEAM
Pit-Stop Event Services in Fond du Lac, Wis., is one of three business units operating under the name Dean Enterprises, the other two being Pit-Stop Portables (their route business), and Dean’s Septic. Owners Peggy and Richard Dean are fortunate to have four sons who participate in the business — route manager Tony, equipment manager Tom, diesel technician Brad and 15-year-old Mike. Tony’s wife, Kim, handles accounts receivable and human resources. Tom’s girlfriend, Bethany Warner, works on routing, dispatch, and shower operations. Richard Dean concentrates on the septic side of the business. And as for Peggy, “I don’t do routes,” she says, “but anything else.” Of course, as in any family business everyone fills in anywhere needed — the office staff might work in the field while Peggy’s mother, Gail Wiese, staffs the office and her partner, Frank Hope, lends a hand.
The family workers are supplemented by four route drivers, as well as a number of temporary standby employees who assist as needed for specific events. Nearly 30 people worked on the Country USA project.
COMPANY HISTORY
Richard Dean got into the septic business in 1994 when he bought out the contractor he had been working for. Shortly after that, when a local golf course owner said, “If you had portable toilets I’d rent them from you,” Dean took the bait and bought six units. “Next thing you know there was a park in the area that heard about us and also wanted them, so we bought six more,” Peggy Dean says. They got into the business full time in 1998 when they purchased M & N Portables, which added 600 units to their inventory. The following year Peggy Dean began working for the company full time, and the year after that they bought an additional 250 units with the purchase of Pit-Stop Portables. In 2004 they acquired their first shower trailer, having rented them for a couple years. Today, they have 1,600 portable restrooms, 50 wheelchair-accessible units, eight restroom trailers and 10 shower trailers.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
The purchase of M & N Portables also led to the Deans getting their foot in the door for the Country USA festival, as the owner of that business had done work for the event promoter, Starshow Presents Inc. A meeting was set up among the three parties, and the festival owner decided to give the Deans a try for the ’99 festival. “It was a year at a time for the first four years,” Peggy Dean says. “But now we have a long-term contract.”
THE MAIN EVENT
For five days, on five stages, over 150,000 country music fans were treated to non-stop entertainment at the 15th annual Country USA festival. The event took place at the 300-acre Ford Festival Park in Oshkosh, Wis., June 22-26. This year’s lineup included the Zac Brown Band, Jason Aldean, Darius Rucker, Blake Shelton and Toby Keith. Participants also enjoyed the international marketplace, dozens of food vendors and carnival rides. A 3,000-site campground is part of the festival grounds.
BY THE NUMBERS
The company provided portable restrooms, restroom trailers, hand-wash stations, and shower trailers for the festival.
They brought in 625 blue-and-white PJN3s and 16 Comfort Inn wheelchair-accessible units from PolyJohn Enterprises Corp. as well as 40 PolyPortables Inc. hand-wash stations. Both the north and south ends of the facility had 150 units. Another 25 were placed at the pedestrian boulevard entryway; 25 at the marketplace. Single units were placed at each gate for gate and security staff, and the remainder dispersed in banks of 20 throughout the campground.
Restroom trailers are from Ameri-Can Engineering. Three were positioned in the VIP area — a 40-foot, 36-foot, and an ADA unit — along with a PolyJohn Men’s Room Urinal. A 32-foot trailer was placed near the Club Tent, and a 16-foot trailer was provided for the office staff.
Two shower operations were set up in the campground. At one end were five Ameri-Can Engineering trailers with 50 stalls, including an ADA stall. At the other end were two company-built trailers, one with 22 stalls, the other nine.
LET’S ROLL
Beginning one week before the festival, two drivers worked continuously for three days to deliver all the equipment. They each drove a 2006 Ford F-350 with a 20-unit trailer. A dozen units were placed into immediate service for stage and catering crews.
KEEPIN’ IT CLEAN
The original 12 units were serviced every day beginning the week before the festival. The rest of the inventory was serviced daily starting on the 23rd. At 4 a.m. the units were pumped out using the company’s septic trucks — a 1995 5,000-gallon International, a 2000 4,000-gallon Mack, and a 1988 4,200-gallon Mack from T-Line Equipment Inc. All use Masport Inc. pumps. They were followed by a water truck and an assembly line of workers who sprayed, scrubbed, restocked, and repaired the units, finishing by 9 a.m.
Campground units were pumped and cleaned two or three times a day using a 2006 Ford F-450 and a 2006 F-550 built out by Best Enterprises Inc. with 900-gallon stainless steel tanks (650 gallons waste/250 gallons freshwater) and Jurop pumps, and a 2004 Ford F-750 with a 2,300-gallon steel tank (1,850 gallons waste/450 gallons freshwater) built out by T-Line Equipment. Pit-Stop drivers transported 12,000 gallons of waste per day to the Oshkosh wastewater treatment facility.
Full-time monitors were on hand from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. An attendant was stationed at the restroom trailer at the Club Tent, and two at the VIP trailer. The company kept a 32-foot trailer on site with 140 cases of small core toilet tissue, 50 cases of single-fold towels, 15 cases of spray soap and 25 cases of center pull towels, along with cleaning supplies. All family and several other employees stayed on site during the event.
SHOWER SERVICE
The company provided the shower trailers at no charge, and ran the operation as a concession. Each shower operation had attendants, cashiers and a maintenance technician between 6 a.m. and 7 p.m. Because the well water they were using was rusty, it was imperative that showerheads and filters be cleaned continuously. “We tried to get in after every person but a lot of people didn’t care if it was clean or not, they just wanted to get in the shower, so it wasn’t always possible,” Dean says. “Our showers are not timed, so they could take as long as they like.” Showers were emptied up to three times daily, with the greywater taken to the Oshkosh treatment facility.
COME RAIN OR SHINE
Dean sums up this year’s event: “It was a little more difficult than previous years. We had monsoons. It rained almost every day — usually at (4 a.m.).” Not only did this make working conditions difficult, but for two days the rain prevented them from getting their septic trucks onto the festival grounds. “But there’s always a way,” Dean says. “We had to service everything from the back side, dragging a 100-foot hose to the units.”
On the last day, when the company would usually be emptying all units, the roads were washed out so everything had to be left an additional day. A week later the company was still removing equipment.
The company has a can-do attitude about serving the big event. “Whatever it takes, we make it happen,” Dean says.’
