A HORSE-DRAWN BUSINESS

Enlarge Image Image Gallery LEFT: Mandy and Dolly, Mike Johnson's fine team of palomino Belgian mares, stand calmly as Steve Daniels loads the brightly painted wagon. Tethered to his mother's harness, Si looks on with a faint air of disapproval! Note the attractive side lantern and sign, artistic details that have made the sanitation service a welcome sight in the neighborhood. CENTER: A grateful Dolly buries her nose in cool water as Mike holds the bucket. RIGHT: Si nuzzles Dolly's face while a delighted child claps and smiles. Photos By Chris Luneski

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Here's how one-man—with a lot of ingenuity and persistence—beat the high cost of fuel.

by E. Horswill

Every Thursday morning in Florence, Oregon—a seacoast tourist community of 10,000—parents line up along the street with their wide-eyed, breathless children in tow. The townsfolk listen intently until they hear the sound of horses' hoofs clipclopping on the pavement ... because that sound announces the approach of Mike Johnson and his team of glossy Belgian mares. And behind the big animals is a painted wagon—pretty enough to be a child's toy—that bears the inscription: SIUSLAW SANITARY SERVICE.

That's right, folks. A modified wagon and two docile dobbins—Mandy and Dolly—are garbageman Mike Johnson's answer to the high cost of gasoline!

The idea of converting his sanitation service from a motorized to a horse-drawn business came to Mike in the summer of 1979, at the height of that year's gasoline shortage ...when he sat down with pencil and paper to figure out a way to pull the reins on his burgeoning expenses. A new truck would cost $30,000, but—and the realization must have come in a moment of inspiration—a wagon and a team of horses would cost only half that amount!

Johnson admits that Florence's city officials weren't exactly thrilled by the idea of a horse-drawn garbage service:

"How will horses behave in traffic?"

"What will our citizens think about having manure on the streets?"

"Will the animals attract flies?"

In the end, however, the powers-that-be agreed to give him a two-month trial in a small area of town. So Johnson immediately set to work constructing a wagon with a side-loading, factory-built compactor plus running gear and a seat ...then he installed a hydraulic engine to drive a pump, and added turn signals and a two -way radio. Finally, he rigged all the controls so they could be operated from the driver's seat.

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