By Robert Williams

Editor 

Steve’s Sanitation in Perham began as a mom and pop business and over time acquired other mom and pops to create a company that now serves Otter Tail and Becker Counties. The days of the single hauler serving a small town have gone by and Steve’s has changed with the times to find success in the growing and changing field.

“The days of little haulers are done; with the regulations and everything, it’s no different than with a farmer. Your small farmer can’t make it anymore,” said President Kelly Melgard.

Steve’s Sanitation started operations with two trucks after Steve and Kay Melgard purchased Brasel’s Hauling in 1986 and ran the family business from the family home.

“It was park the trucks in the backyard,” said Melgard.

The Melgards upgraded homes to one with a shed in the backyard two years later.

“In 1993, we bought our first roll off truck,” Kelly said.

Around the same time, the family purchased two of the lots the company is based out of currently in the Perham Industrial Park. At that time, the industrial park looked much different than it does today.

“It was just grass,” said Melgard.

The original 5,000-square foot shed that housed trucks, a wash bay, a service bay and a small office was built in 1998. By 2005, the current office building was open and the contemporary setup has been in place since 2017. 

Steve’s Sanitation has grown alongside the city of Perham at a consistent pace.

“We purchased a few companies,” Melgard said.

Those include Meyer’s Garbage Service from owner Dave Meyer in New York Mills and Jon & Son’s Disposal Service from owners Jon and Brenda Christenson in Detroit Lakes.

Steve’s was officially passed from Steve and Kay to Kelly and his brother Casey in 2015 and they have continued the family dynamic despite the obvious company growth over the years. Both Kelly’s wife Stacie and Casey’s wife Sarah can be found running the office. Stacie has been on board since 2008; Sarah began working at Steve’s in 2015.

The truck routes have also grown over time from the one truck, one backup truck and a route that covered Perham and a few select addresses on Little Pine Lake to the entirety of Otter Tail County and more.

“Pretty much all of Otter Tail and Becker counties,” Kelly said.

Steve’s, as a company, has open communications with its customers, especially when it comes to explaining the fluctuating prices of collecting and hauling garbage.

“One thing I’ve seen in the business a lot that’s negative is people, they’ll charge you one price and charge your neighbor another price,” said Kelly. “Our price is our price. It’s not like a cell phone bill where you get it and there are all these added fees. That, I think, helps a lot.”

There are many factors that go into creating that price from constant conundrums like consistently-rising tipping fees at landfills to nationwide issues that have hampered many companies like supply chain issues, along with adjustments that had to be made to deal with staffing and wage issues.

“There was one year, 2021, where we raised prices twice that year,” Kelly said. “That was the year where wages just shot through the roof.”

The Melgards did what they had to do to keep their employees. The other major factor is the change in tipping fees that happens once per year. That increase is something that Steve’s Sanitation explains in their billing so customers know why they are paying more and who is the cause of the rising prices.

It needs explaining because landfills are one place where every entity and more can get in on setting the price and/or collecting tax. In Minnesota, cities, towns, counties, and the state can set fees for landfills. Landfill operators can set fees for solid waste accepted and disposed of at their facilities. Tipping fees are charges for waste received at a processing facility. They are usually used to cover the costs of opening, maintaining, and closing the landfill. 

The charge to drop off trash depends on the weight of the load. 

Special materials, like mattresses or electronics, may incur additional charges.

“It never used to be that way,” said Melgard.

For instance, when Steve’s purchased Jon & Sons Becker County had not raised their tipping fees in more than a decade.

“They’ve raised it every year,” Kelly said.

Equipment maintenance is also a challenge, including the garbage trucks that have $15,000 worth of software loaded and that is for the maintenance team.

Steve’s does market its business but the consistent company growth has been attributed to a lot of word-of-mouth advertising from customers. Each container is also a free ad for the company.

Hauling trash is another industry that has been hit by the truck driver shortage in the United States. Industry projections are not favorable either.

The American Trucking Associations (ATA) estimated a shortage of roughly 60,000 drivers in 2024 that grew to 82,000 by the end of the year. The ATA projects that the shortage could rise to over 160,000 by 2031.

Encouraging young people to join the trucking workforce has been made difficult by CDL licensure limitations, like an 18-year-old CDL driver cannot cross a state line until the age of 21.

“That’s three years out of high school,” Melgard said. “Who is going to wait three years?”

The state plays a big factor in present problems and future operations of trash haulers. There are also many green initiatives that do not go beyond just talk. Running a trash hauling business makes it easier to see how some initiatives are not doing what they say and not even addressing the problems with both trash and recycling.

“You’re not making it go away; you’re making it somebody else’s problem,” said Melgard. “And I don’t like that.”

For more information on Steve’s and the services provided, visit stevessanitation.com/