About Nestucca Valley Sanitary Service
In the summer of 1949, newlyweds Roy and Eleanor Dye ventured from Turlock, California to their first home in Cloverdale, Oregon. Their home was not unusual. However, the mortgage came with a 1930 flatbed truck and a receipt for the purchase of the Cloverdale Garbage route! In order to supplement the small business, Roy worked several other jobs over the years, including school bus driver, log mill worker, Oregon State Road crewman and gas station attendant. Eleanor was the bookkeeper and prepared the handwritten bills at the kitchen table for their small customer base. In the meantime, two children rounded out the family; son Tom and daughter Sandy.
Eventually, the Dyes purchased the Beaver and Neskowin customer list and combined the routes. Tom Edwards, Eleanor's father would help fill the driver's seat when Roy was on the other job. Later in the 1960s, Roy was able to focus exclusively on managing and driving the garbage route and Eleanor worked for the Tillamook and Nestucca School Districts.
A rural garbage company, Nestucca Valley Sanitary Service (NVSS) was providing service for the small communities in South Tillamook County and covered 350 square miles of sparsely populated dairy and forested areas. As many solid waste companies in the 1970s, NVSS found itself adjusting to the new rules and regulations set forth through federal and state govenment agencies. Tillamook County residents and extensive environmental requirements prevented the relocation of another landfill in the county, so both Tillamook County Landfill and the Pacific City Dump locations were closed by DEQ in the early '80s, and transfer stations were built on the sites to transport all garbage collected to a contracted landfill outside of the county. The Pacific City Dump was reinvented as a small "satellite" recycling and self-haul location for the convenience of the South Tillamook County residents and was managed by Nestucca Valley Sanitary Service.
In 1984, 60 year old Roy passed away of congestive heart failure while preparing the truck to start the day's route. Two weeks prior, he had walked his daughter, Sandy, down the wedding aisle. Eleanor had a difficult decision to make; sell the business that she and Roy had worked so hard to build, or accept the challenge of continuing to build into the future. As one of the first women to own and manage a garbage business in Oregon, she took that challenge, purchased a new truck and rode on the garbage truck to chronicle and update the customer database for NVSS's first computer program.
Eleanor's focus never waivered from the business vision she and her busband began to build as newlyweds in 1949. As one of the first women to serve on the early Oregon State DEQ's public relations committee, she participated in drafting early recycling programs. Eleanor spent a great deal of her personal time traveling throughout the state, encouraging other small garbage businesses to keep their voice in the solid waste industry.
In 1984, Eleanor and her friend Judy (Nielson) Hansen, co-founded the original Oregon Beach Clean-up, which has lead to present national and international events. (Click here to see SOLV's 25th Anniversary article on the Oregon Beach Clean-up.)
By 1993, daughter Sandy had established a career in media, marketing and public relations; she and her 8 year old daughter Allison left Portland and moved back to Hebo to regroup after the death of her husband. Eleanor decided to extend an offer to Sandy to stay and work together to build the business.
Son Tom, upon graduating from Portland State University in 1974, served with the Tillamook County Sheriff's Department, retiring in 2000, after 30 years and two consecutive terms as Sheriff.
Over 70 years later, this little business, which began with nothing more than a house, a 1930 flatbed truck and a receipt for the Cloverdale Garbage Route, now employs five full-time and two part-time employees within our local South Tillamook County area. Eleanor has retired and daughter Sandy manages all aspects of NVSS operations. Their collective goal is to continue to provide excellent service and expand material handling and disposal opportunities for South Tillamook County.
LEARN MORE ABOUT NVSSIn 2010, Nestucca Valley Sanitary Services was honored by SOLV with a Citizenship Award for business. Take a look at it, and see what NVSS is all about.
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November 24, 2010
SOLV award to Hebo business
In 2010, Nestucca Valley Sanitary Service was awarded the
business category citizenship award by SOLV, for our work founding and continuing to support the Oregon Coast cleanup events.
Click here to read the article by Laura Ruggeri of the Headlight Herald!
September 19, 2009
The 25th Anniversary Fall Beach Cleanup a Huge Success!
Facing the threat of cloudy skies and rainy conditions on much of the coast, more than 3,700 volunteers turned out to participate in the 25th anniversary of the SOLV Great Oregon Fall Beach Cleanup earlier today. The entire Oregon coast, over 362 miles, was cleaned of debris that had accumulated since last spring. Volunteers removed an estimated 54,460 pounds of trash from Oregon’s beaches.
In the north at Fort Stevens State Park, the sun broke through the morning clouds and coordinators saw one of the largest volunteer turnouts ever for this event. Among the many interesting items found Saturday were a car bumper, a pacifier, a box of baby wipes, an unopened package of hotdogs that expired last year, a small refrigerator, a life vest, and over 125 shoes and flip flops. Volunteers reported finding an unusual number of homeless camps on the beach. At Beverly Beach State Park near Newport, four goats joined volunteers to help keep the coastline clean.
Some of the most common items found on the beach included Styrofoam, plastic caps, lids, bottles and cigarette butts. While these are often small items, if they accumulate they can do big damage to marine wildlife and the environment, particularly the plastic debris that never fully degrade or disappear. Scientists have discovered that more than 5 million square miles of the Pacific Ocean is covered with trash, and most of it is believed to be compiled of the remnants of plastic trash from the world's shorelines. Data from past cleanups tell us that nearly 80% of ocean trash comes from land-based activities, meaning this problem is preventable if we all did more to reduce, properly dispose of, or recycle trash.
Along with SOLV, the cleanup is coordinated by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department (OPRD) and local coast sanitary companies. Zone Captains from coastal communities and partner organizations such as OPRD and the Surfrider Foundation worked to coordinate volunteer registration and disposal points along the coast. Disposal fees were covered by coastal counties and hauling services were provided free-of-charge for this year’s cleanup from the following companies: Central Coast Disposal, City Sanitary, County Transfer & Recycling, Nestucca Valley Sanitary Service, North Lincoln Sanitary Service, R Sanitary Service, Southern Oregon Sanitary, Thompson’s Sanitary Service, & Western Oregon Waste.
Special thanks also go to the following companies for donating their services, making the Beach Cleanup brochure possible: Sandstrom Partners Inc; Color Technology for electronic prepress; and Rick Schafer Photography and the Ray Atkeson Image Archive for the photo of the beach at Shore Acres State Park.
The 25th Anniversary SOLV Great Oregon Fall Beach Cleanup Sponsors are Fred Meyer, Portland General Electric, and Wells Fargo Bank. Major Sponsors include AAA Oregon/Idaho, Alaskan Brewing Company/Columbia Distributing, and The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde. Zone sponsors are the Curry Coastal Pilot, Hawthorn Farm Athletic Club, and the Pelican Pub and The Inn at Cape Kiwanda. The beach cleanup is also supported by Zipcar and SOLV Members. Media sponsors are KGW Northwest NewsChannel 8 and KPOJ.
Founded in 1969 by Oregon Governor Tom McCall to address litter and vandalism problems, SOLV’s mission has expanded to reach every county in the state and brings together government agencies, businesses and individuals in projects to enhance the livability of Oregon. Governor McCall also signed the 1967 Beach Bill into law, creating the Ocean Shore Recreation Area, managed by the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department for the benefit of all Oregonians.