The Team

PortaPros has serviced the Treefort Music Fest in Boise, Idaho since its inception — and the PRO’s inception — in 2012. Jason Christie, vice president of operations, says everyone from offices in Nampa, Idaho, and Ontario, Oregon, were involved in the 2023 event one way or another — logistics, dispatch, pickup and delivery, customer care, servicing, helping with existing routes, working in the yard.

Territory manager James Sokoloski oversaw the operation. “Then he syncs up with Ricky Parks, operations manager, and Tyler Patterson, dispatch manager,” Christie says. “He lets them know, ‘This is what I need for these days,’ and then they put together the logistics for people, trucks and product.”

COMPANY HISTORY

Company owner Carl Arriola had a lot of managerial experience in a number of diverse industries — but portable sanitation was not one of them. He didn’t let that stop him when he came across a portable restroom company for sale in 2012. He saw its potential, bought the business and proceeded to create an employee-supportive, customer-centric company that promoted high standards. He attributes his initial success to the helpful contacts he made in the industry.

In 2019 he acquired two more companies. “When we started we had eight team members, a handful of trucks, a handful of portable restrooms,” Christie says. “Today we have 25 vacuum trucks, 50-plus employees and 3,500 toilets.”

THE MAIN EVENT

The five-day Treefort Music Fest was held over spring break, March 22-26, 2023, and featured 500 bands from 19 countries. It’s billed as an indie rock fest but has grown over the years and now includes a wide variety of music as well as many other “forts” — Artfort, Comedyfort, Foodfort, Alefort, Kidfort, Filmfort, Yogafort, etc.

Julia Davis Park in downtown Boise was the base of operations, but bands and activities were featured at numerous bars, restaurants and theaters — and even on shuttle buses that serve the event. Half the park offered family-friendly free activities; the other half, which included the main stage, required a paid wristband. Snow and mud did not deter the enthusiasm of 25,000 attendees.

Hundreds of volunteers were on hand including the Green Team which ensured trash was properly separated into compostable and recyclable materials.

MAKING PLANS

The park was a new location for the event in 2023, as the previous location was being redeveloped, so there was a little bit of extra work involved. Basic logistics planning began in October 2022, followed by an initial walk-through of the park. “Then we had many other walk-throughs,” Christie says, “because the people who put it on are visionary and have a lot of different ideas so the map and everything changes quite often.”

Plans were finalized by February and the company began scheduling people, equipment, locations, dates and times, coordinating closely with the parks department, organizers and the event rental company. Sokoloski held team meetings to go over job duties, maps and scheduling details.

BY THE NUMBERS

The company was an integral part of the planning process. “They gave James full capacity to say, ‘This is what you guys need, this is where we need to place units for both the servicing side and for access to the public,’” Christie says.

PortaPros supplied 97 standard portable restrooms equipped with hand sanitizer dispensers, seven ADA-compliant units, 65 hand-wash stations (all from Satellite Industries), eight PolyJohn Enterprises graywater holding tanks, one two-stall Satellite Suites restroom trailer and 4,300 feet of SONCO Crowd Control temporary chain-link fencing.

LET’S ROLL

Fencing was brought in on Tuesday and Wednesday of the week prior to the event. It was used to separate ticketed and free areas, hide generators and block restricted areas.

On Friday, restrooms and hand-wash stations were placed in the general vicinity of their final location until other vendors were finished bringing in their equipment. Units were zip-tied. Most of the equipment was placed in various locations around the park. The rest was taken to other venues for the benefit of people waiting in line, and also parking lots that became temporary venues. Hand-wash stations were placed with every bank of units and also staggered around food and beverage vendors, entryways and strategic spots for festival workers.

Graywater tanks were used for unconsumed beer. “There were staging areas throughout the event where people who were done drinking their beer could pour the remainder into a bucket which then got transported to a holding tank,” Christie says. “That way, cups could be recycled so people weren’t just dumping half-full cups of beer into the trash.”

On Monday the restroom trailer was brought in and placed at the main stage for the artists. On Tuesday and Wednesday Sokoloski and one of the technicians walked around for a final check before Wednesday’s opening. The company picked up everything the following Monday and Tuesday.

KEEPIN’ IT CLEAN

Seven technicians wearing headlamps and high-visibility vests arrived daily around 3 a.m. to begin the three-hour process of cleaning the equipment. “Then they’d head back to our yard and dump their effluent, get their trucks stocked back up and head out on routes,” Christie says.

The team used seven vacuum trucks — 2020-2022 Isuzu Workmates built out by FMI Truck Sales & Service with 750-gallon waste/300-gallon freshwater steel tanks, an additional 75-gallon water tank on top and Masport pumps. The company keeps their fleet fresh, replacing trucks at four years, 150,000 miles or 10,000 engine hours.

Technician Kenny Wilson came by each day around 8 a.m. to do a final daylight check, then stayed until 5 p.m. to restock and take care of problems. “But nothing was amiss this year so he got to just enjoy the music and have dinner at the food truck,” Christie says. 

Disposal was at the company’s yard. “We’re one of the very fortunate operators that gets to dump our effluent onsite at our facility — but we are highly regulated,” Christie says. “It goes directly to the city sewer.”

SMOOTH OPERATION

Christie says there were no complaints and feedback was all positive. “Even though it was a different venue, we’re familiar with the event and their needs. And our success is hugely attributed to the people we have. Our brand is our people. Everyone is already planning and excited for next year’s Treefort.”