THE TEAM
Ellie Madrigal, Carlos Moreno, Jose Plascencia and Luis Plascencia are the owners of Eagle Portables in Lynwood, Calif., a suburb of Los Angeles. Jose Plascencia’s daughter Maria also works for the company, and another son, Eder, helped with the Dia de los Muertos project. Job descriptions are flexible. Everyone does a little bit of everything — sales, pickup and deliveries, washing units. Moreno focuses on servicing. All hands were on deck the weekend of the cemetery event as the company also provided units for the University of Southern California home football game. “We worked a good 23 hours that day,” Madrigal says.
COMPANY HISTORY
Madrigal spent 12 years working for a large portable restroom company. When it was sold, and then sold again, she ended up with a very long commute. Out of frustration she told co-worker Moreno, “We should just open up our own business.” He agreed, they bought 12 units, and in 2006 put out their shingle.
With a few successes under their belt, they quickly realized they needed more units, and for that they needed funding. So in 2007 they brought in Jose Plascencia, owner of a roll-off container business, and his son Luis, and created a more formal corporate structure for the business. They came up with a list of about 20 possible names for the company, but when the vote was taken they unanimously agreed on Eagle Portables.
They have 310 portable restrooms and work within a 45-mile radius of their office. About 60 percent of their business is special events; the rest construction.
MAKING CONNECTIONS
The Hollywood Forever Cemetery sponsors a number of events throughout the year that require portable restroom services. A friend of Luis Plascencia knew organizers of this event and suggested they try out Eagle. That remark opened the door for the company to put in a bid. The cemetery tried them out for three events, along with another company, and in the end selected Eagle.
SEEING RED
The owners are proud of their choice of red restrooms. Madrigal firmly believes having attractive restrooms at an event is something appreciated by both sponsors and users. The company also chose its color to complement the patriotic theme of their name. “We have red toilets, blue corners and white roofs,” Madrigal says of the PolyJohn Enterprises Corp. units. “Even the towel dispenser is red.” Eagle’s red hand-wash stations come from PolyPortables Inc. The color scheme extends to company shirts and is used throughout the company’s Web site.
THE MAIN EVENT
Hollywood Forever Cemetery, founded in 1899, sits adjacent to the back lot at historic Paramount Studios. This picturesque cemetery is the final resting place of such screen legends as Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, Cecil B. DeMille and Jayne Mansfield.
On Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009, the cemetery sponsored its 10th annual Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, a 3,000-year-old Aztec tradition celebrated in many parts of the Americas. It’s a day to honor and even, in a sense, to reunite with one’s deceased ancestors.
The scene at the graveyard was festive. Attendance was around 20,000, many in costumes. The celebration began with a procession and ended with a concert by Latin Grammy winner Lila Downs. Attractions included arts and crafts, performing artists, lectures and children’s interactive activities. Doors opened to the public at 4 p.m. but thousands arrived early in the day to get a head start on one of the main activities, the creation of elaborate altars and shrines for the deceased. This was a competitive event with $3,000 going to the first place winner.
BY THE NUMBERS
The company provided 65 PolyJohn PJN3 units, five Comfort Inn wheelchair accessible units, and eight PolyPortables Inc. TagAlong hand-wash stations. They were placed in five locations throughout the 62-acre cemetery.
LET’S ROLL
To drop off units, the company made the 20-mile trip to the cemetery four times via downtown Los Angeles, using a 2006 Chevy Silverado pickup that held six units, pulling a 12-unit trailer. Hand-wash stations were hauled in a 2007 Silverado. They started at 5 a.m. and by the time they brought in their last load around 2 p.m. the cemetery was packed. “It was crazy,” Madrigal says. “We couldn’t get in and finally had to be escorted by police officers on motorcycles.”
The event officially ended at 11 p.m., and although the company arrived at midnight hoping to start pumping units, it wasn’t until 3 a.m. that crowds thinned enough for them to get through. It made for a long cleanup shift, as they finished around 11 a.m.
KEEPIN’ IT CLEAN
For servicing, the company used a 2007 Ford F-550 built out by Satellite Industries with a 650-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater steel tank and Conde pump from Westmoor Ltd.. They returned to their shop five times to dump waste into a 2,500-gallon storage tank at the yard.
FINAL REWARD
Although the event took on an extreme party atmosphere, the company experienced no incidents of vandalism or graffiti. “People were drunk, but everything was peaceful,” Madrigal says. However, the company would prefer to do a few things differently next time. “I would recommend more restrooms because the paper was out of them already, and they were filled pretty much to capacity,” she says.
The company didn’t get a chance to sit down with event coordinators to express these concerns, but they’re confident the cemetery was happy with their service as they were hired again the following two weekends for Halloween movie screenings.
