MAY 12, 2026 #015 M.SIMPSON/W.MARLAR/M.ARP (THE REAL DIRT ON LANDFILLS)

REPLY/COMMENT 

 In this episode of Talkin’ Grit, M. Simpson sits down with the W.Marlar & M.Arp  to break down the world of landfills. What they are, how they got started, and the role they play today. It’s an inside look at the industry, the people behind it, and the unexpected moments that come with the job. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

From the job site to the office, from lessons learned to stories worth telling, this is Talk and Grit. Brought to you by Wright Brothers. Here's your host, Jared Walger.

SPEAKER_01 0:13

All right, thanks for joining us and tuning in to this fresh episode of Talk and Grit. We've got a good one today. We've got Wendell Marlar and Matt Arp on the podcast. And uh, Mitchell, we're gonna be digging into this with them. So why don't you set this up and let's get this conversation headed down the road here so we can get some good stuff out to everybody. So go ahead and take it away.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Jared, appreciate that. So Wendell, Matt, appreciate you guys coming on the podcast today. You know, we're gonna be talking about a critical piece of Wright Brothers' business today, and it's all the landfill work. The landfill work we've done over the years. You know, we've built, I don't know, Wendell, what do you think? Hundreds of landfills at this point in time.

SPEAKER_04 0:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 0:55

And it is really a testament to this organization and what we've done over the years. Key piece of work that everybody needs to understand, and just want to shout out to all the guys that do this each and every day. So, Wendell, you started working here at Wright Brothers. What year was it?

SPEAKER_02 1:12

1980.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

1980. So you started 1980, and you know, you worked all over the southeast. Your your dad worked here, Marlowe worked here, and we can talk about that in another conversation here one of these days. But from 1980 until sometime in the 90s, you went around everywhere building whatever, whenever, right? Right. And you ended up in Upper East Tennessee. So you grew up in Mississippi, ended up in Upper East Tennessee, building I-26, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

So that I-26 work, can you explain to everybody what that was when we were doing that I-26 work to kind of set this up?

SPEAKER_02 1:56

It was going into uh uh North Carolina over there, first three, little bit over three miles of it, and we were tying into Kiwitz job over and uh moving moving a lot of yardage and drilling, shooting, basically a roadway job.

SPEAKER_03 2:13

Massive job. Yeah. So to set this up, the job that Wendell's talking about is the first job that Wright brothers had in North Carolina for NC D OT, right, Wendell? Yes. 10 million yards excavation, I-26. And previous to that, we'd had jobs on I-26 on the Tennessee side of the mountain. Did you work on any of those?

SPEAKER_02 2:37

No, Steve and uh and Lonnie and that crew over there did those. Jeff was over in there, he done part of that too.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Yeah, yeah. So you had the North Carolina side, you were building that massive job, 10 million yards, and as that job was going on, starting to wind down, right, we had an opportunity to start doing work with waste management. How did that come about, Wendell?

SPEAKER_02 3:03

Steve had met him and was talking, well, he met on that job down there at Johnson City and was talking to waste management, and we got introduced to a guy by the name of Gene Barnes. And uh really good guy, run a tight ship over there, and uh there was a million and a half yards over there to drill shoot and put a cell in. We had to put the clay and everything in it, and you know, we wasn't that familiar with the clay process, so we subbed that work out to really yeah, to Summerton Taylor.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

Okay. So million and a half yards t of excavation for a landfill. Now this landfill was Irish Glen landfill, right? Right. And it's there in Upper East Tennessee. It is Johnson City. Downtown Johnson City. Yeah. So first time Wright Brothers was able to do that. So what was the year again, Lendell?

SPEAKER_02 3:57

It was mid-90s. I don't I'm not sure what year it was or dead on it what year, but it's mid-90s.

SPEAKER_03 4:04

So you did that job, right? Yeah. And good experience.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

It was. It was got to meet a lot of different people in a different business of what usually I was building highways instead of landfill stuff.

SPEAKER_03 4:17

Yeah. Yeah. So tot totally new arena for Wright Brothers at that point in time. Up until that point, Wright Brothers had been a road builder and they'd done some pretty big site jobs, but never had looked at a landfill. So we did Irish Glenn, Irish Glenn went well. And then then what happened then, Wendell?

SPEAKER_02 4:36

Well, we got got to knowing the waste management crowd, and they believed in us and trusted our people, and we got invited to a lot more a lot more of their jobs. We we done some work over in Knockville for them, and I know there was one contractor over there that uh they he couldn't he didn't get it done and they called us in to finish his work up and we took off from there. Yeah. Getting to getting to know the whole crowd then.

SPEAKER_03 5:04

Yeah. Yeah. So over time, you know, that was in the nineties. Y'all moved forward, you had the job at Chestnut Ridge. You all really, really established a great relationship with waste management. Pretty pretty ridiculous how good it was.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:22

And then over time you also established a relationship with Republic, right? Yes. When was that?

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Geez, Mitchell, I don't know. It uh there was two or three sites where Republic we looked at never could get in on, and then we finally hooked up, and Middle Point Landfield was was probably the best job to hook up and get started on them, and we got got to get their name out from there in the Republic Arena, and uh like I say they uh they liked our guys, we done what we told them we would and built a good relationship with them too.

SPEAKER_03 6:04

So that was in the late 2000s, right? It was that was after I'd showed up that that happened. And you know, just funny story on the flip side of the coin, you know, before I came to work here, I worked for a company by the name of Phillips and Jordan, and we were competing against Wright brothers. And the first time I met Steve Wright and Wendell and Larry Gavin was at a pre-bid at Chestnut Ridge. Really? Yeah, yeah. So let me tell you how this goes. And it was uh it was I realized that after being there for about 15 minutes that we were wasting our total time. So we had a bid, and it was an invited bid. I don't know if you remember this or not, Wendell, but we all showed up, you know, we thought, hey, this is we're a Knoxville contractor, this is a big job. It had what was that job, Wendell? A couple million yards.

SPEAKER_02 6:59

It had quite a bit of yardage.

SPEAKER_03 7:01

It was a massive job. It was a massive job, and we were all jacked up about it, showed up up there, and you know, I don't remember who with waste management was running that meeting. Was that Bob Bolonovich? Bob Bolonovich. Yeah, so Bob was running the meeting at that point in time. And, you know, we're totally naive. We don't understand the Wright Brothers waste management relationship. Well, we got a schooling on it pretty quick. We sat there at that pre-bid, and they don't start to pre-bid because not everybody from Wright Brothers has showed up yet. So it was Phillips and Jordan, it was Wright Brothers. Do you remember who else was there? I don't remember who else was there. I don't know. I don't. So Wendell was there, Gavin had showed up, but they wouldn't start to pre-bid until Steve showed up. So we're just all sitting there hanging out and waiting on Steve to show up. And Steve shows up, you know, he shows up late. And at this point in time, I'd figured out, I was like, we're wasting our time with this because they ain't gonna give it to anybody but these guys. And I'd told, I leaned over and told the Phillips and Jordan guys that, and they're like, oh no, we got this. Why? Who do you think got the job? No, Ray Brothers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because of relationship. Because of a relationship. So appreciate the fact that that point in time I gave you a complimentary bid there, Wendell. Glad to know you got to work. Everybody needs to be part of it. That's right. Everybody needs to be part of the process. I'm glad I got to be part of the process there. But you know, at that point in time, been on the flip side of the coin, even after, you know, that was 2004 when I'd run into you guys, that relationship was right at 10 years old. And it was a it was a strong relationship then. It wasn't gonna be broken. It didn't matter what we did because waste management believed in Wright Brothers. And that's just a testament to who the organization is. Yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah. And that's pretty cool. Yeah, well, yeah, and you know, so at that point in time, I I'm gonna jump off course talking about landfills. That's how I ended up at Wright Brothers, right? So that's where I met Steve, Wendell, Gavin, all that, and I sat there and talked to Steve, and he figured out, you know, he knew my family, I knew his. We figured everything out, and then he offered me a job, you know, six months after that. Wow. But anyways, you know, it just out of the gate on the guy on the outside looking in, competing against Wright Brothers construction on that landfill with waste management, you could see right then that those guys had a great relationship with waste management. Waste management believed in them, and they had a great business. They had a great business. So, you know, when I got the chance to come on board here, you know, I wanted to. And that was that was part of the just seeing that waste management relationship. So, you know, Wendell, with waste, you started at Irish Glen, you went to Chestnut. Where all of you worked at for them? I mean, you worked all over the place for them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

Yeah, Tennessee, Alabama, can Camden.

SPEAKER_03 10:21

Yeah. Arkansas, Arkansas, Lewisburg. So y'all went to Arkansas. Where was that? Where was that one in Arkansas?

SPEAKER_02 10:28

I know the name. Right outside of Little Rock of it. Community or a small community over there, but they we got called in there because they had an emergency and needed fixed.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Yeah, but key point there is you got called in. You guys you guys weren't looking for it. I mean, Matt, I remember a few years back you had a package of landfills out in Texas, right? You went and looked at stuff in Texas and I thought, you've lost your mind. Right. They've asked us to bid them all over. They've asked you to bid them all over. So then you got Republic, right? So you got the Republic relationship, Middlepoint. Wendell, how many jobs have you done at Middle Point now there in Murfreesboro?

SPEAKER_02 11:08

I mean, just five, six. You know, Jane Carolyn was the first one to put us in over there. 2010. And yeah. She uh she went against the grain, would you say, Matt? Yep. Because there was two people there that did not want us in because they hadn't worked with us before. Yeah. She was new. Yeah. And she put us in, and we've been there ever since. I mean, she was she was good, and you know, the thing about it is we we tell our guys one thing, try to make them ask for you by name back. If you've done that, you made a mark on them. That's right. And they know who that is and and do them a good job. And their guys have, you know, they've knocked it out of the park on that, man.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

So man, that's that's a good word right there, you know. No matter who you are for Wright Brothers, you're representing the organization. Make sure they know you by name. Make sure they want you to come back. Yeah. That's good.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

And done that, you made your mark.

SPEAKER_03 12:15

That's right. Good word, Wendell. Good word. So, you know, we've talked waste management, we've talked Republic, you know. When Santec was in business, you did a bunch of work for them. You've done a bunch of different private clients too, right? So Waste Connections, we worked for them. Waste connections, sorry I'm forgetting those guys. Capital waste is a new client we've taken on. Capital waste. So you guys, let's just talk through this for a second. You've built landfills in Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Arkansas, Kentucky. Louisiana, Kentucky, Virginia. Nothing in Virginia.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

Nothing in Virginia, not a landfill.

SPEAKER_03 13:04

Went to uh Mississippi.

SPEAKER_02 13:07

Well, we've been in Mississippi. We've, you know, like Matt said, Louisiana, with it.

SPEAKER_03 13:12

That was Oh, let's not talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 13:13

That was not our greatest.

SPEAKER_03 13:14

Let's not talk about that. Greatest job barrier. What do you got to bring that one up for, Matt? Huh? It's on the list. It's on the list. Part of the story. Part of the history. So, you know, that story right there is you guys got asked by waste management to go down there, right? We we understood it to be a waste management landfill, but at the end of the day, it really wasn't, was it?

unknown 13:40

No.

SPEAKER_02 13:40

It was a parish landfill. He was working for the parish. Parish wanted a local contractor in there. They were in a lawsuit with waste management. And we should have if we'd have done the right thing, it would have made waste management really not good with us. So we elected to finish that job. We should have shut it down when waste management was told by the parish that they were going to buy by their stuff. We should have shut it down then and made a deal with waste management. But we finished the work, we got a good name for it. She's asked us to come back. We've told her no.

SPEAKER_03 14:17

To Louisiana? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:18

No. So uh that's uh but you know, we we did not make any enemies over there at all. Make good friends.

SPEAKER_03 14:28

So that matters. So uh, you know, the Louisiana experience, I think the lessons learned there, at least from my standpoint, is you gotta know who you're working for, right? Wace was managing that landfill for the parish. We understood it to be their landfill, it just simply wasn't. Yeah. And you know, hey, we got burned by that. And then one that I find interesting is hey, you guys went to Florida last year, right? That's right. And when you went to Florida, you didn't just go to the edge of Florida, you went all the way down south of Orlando. What in the world, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:01

So Matt was thinking about buying him a home over.

SPEAKER_03 15:05

There you go. Who was that with? Which owner was that? That was with the Republic. Republic. Okay. Yep. Okay. So that once again, you know, relationships, right? That's right. Relationships. I mean, those guys, because of what you've done up here, word travels, and what you go all the way down there. Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

They did not know us from Adam there and made a phone call and we're told that that they need to bring us in.

SPEAKER_01 15:31

Yeah. Wow. So is that gonna be a one-off kind of thing, or do you think there's more going next week to look at another one?

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Yeah, we got a bid package this week from them. That's amazing. So go bid another one.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

So let's do that. Wow, let's do it. So, hey, let's talk about a landfill for a second, because I don't know that everybody understands how a landfill is really built and how it's made. It is very different than just a site job. It's very different than just, you know, a road job. It's more meticulous, it's a detail type of thing. So, Wendell, you build the landfill. The excavation, hey, it's kind of like it's what we always do. You get it to subgrade. You get it to subgrade, it's the same kind of thing. But then after that, it really changes, right? Oh, yeah. It's a totally different package, yeah. So let's just kind of walk through what that is, the layers of what it is, so everybody kind of understands that. So you get to subgrade, then what do you do?

SPEAKER_02 16:32

Well, most people think you just dump trash in it, then. Amen, but dig a hole, throw the trash in. Yeah. But it's not anything like that. It's uh you know, they get a you get a a hole dug, basically simple. Then you get it in grade, you get tolerances of uh plus plus or minus on the on the tolerances. On subgrade, everything's gotta be low. It's gotta be either grade or lower.

SPEAKER_03 17:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:01

Then when you get that finished and they certify that, then you put in what's called geologic buffer.

SPEAKER_03 17:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 17:10

And then that can be from grade to plus one tenth. And then after you get that certified and established, you know, it's it's not usually on a highway, what you want to do is have your 815 roller walk out on top of the dirt and not make any tracks, you know. And it is totally different in a landfill. You gotta have the right moisture in your dirt to get get the clay to kneading together, and then when you get the geologic buffer down, you can be from grade to plus one tenth, and then you gotta put the the compacted clay liner in.

SPEAKER_03 17:50

And and this is when I was working at Phillips and Jordan, I got a real education on the clay. I did not understand that, and boy, it's a big deal. So go ahead, say go ahead and explain that.

SPEAKER_02 18:03

Well, you're I mean your clay, you it's you don't do like you, you know, would sometimes on a road job when you can put in a little bit thicker lift. You, you know, you've got control lifts, eight inches loose, six inches compacted, and then the moisture contents usually plus one or plus two of optimum moisture. And you've gotta you've gotta work that, knead it together, then they push tubes on it and check the permeability of the clay. If it doesn't meet permeability and you elect to put another lift on it, then you have to dig that out and then rework the clay you put the bottom.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

But so let's talk permeability for a minute, and this is something I just didn't get. Usually on landfills, the permeabilities that I've seen is it's ten to the minus five, right, or ten to the minus seven. Right. Sometimes it's more. Can you explain what permeability is, Wendell, Matt? Can y'all explain that? Matt?

SPEAKER_02 19:05

Yeah, it's just the measurement of just and dumbing it down a little bit, but the measurement of the amount of water that flows through soil at a certain rate. So when they permit these things, it takes 10 plus years to get it approved. There's all kinds of engineering design and studying and looking at the water table, but basically it's it's an environmental requirement that they have to not leak when this thing is built and done.

SPEAKER_03 19:32

And finding the right dirt, finding the right permeability dirt at times can be a real deal, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:39

That can either win you or lose your landfill.

SPEAKER_03 19:41

Yes. So one of my jobs when I was back in the landfill days at Phillips and Jordan was I was the kid that went to go find the dirt everywhere, right? So I remember looking for dirt in Birmingham one day for a landfill down there, and you know, it's hard to find the right good clay dirt for 10 to the minus seven in Birmingham. Couldn't find it. And then, you know, another job I remember going up to Baltimore. We were bidding a deal at Baltimore, and guess what? It's on the coast. You can't find 10 to the minus seven clay material in Baltimore. So I spent a week up there wasting my time trying to find that and figured out we just had to haul it in. But, you know, it's it's more than just get in the dirt and throw it in the hole, right, Wendell?

SPEAKER_02 20:31

It is.

SPEAKER_03 20:32

A lot more. It's a it's a lot more than that.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

When you the and going back to when you get the clay to its final grade, you can you can be a a tenth high but nothing low at all. And uh so that's gonna be from a grade to plus one tenth. And then you smooth drum it, get all your rocks out. You can't have any rocks, and most of the time it's half inch. I've have seen it a quarter inch.

SPEAKER_03 20:58

Because you don't want to cut the liner.

SPEAKER_02 21:00

Because you don't want to poke a hole in the liner. And then they put a 60 mil liner down, it's a hard plastic liner that they weld and and air test and make sure there's no leaks in it, then they lay it down, and when you get that down over it, then they put uh composite over that. And sometimes part of our landfills have a GCL which goes in under the liner.

SPEAKER_03 21:24

Geosynthetic clay liner.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Yeah. And uh but you know, I know the one in Florida, they'll have it, but uh, you know, that that in itself is a pain because the the way you've got to do it, you you know, you can't get it wet. Yep. If it gets wet, you gotta write it. It swells. It swells. Wow. And uh but uh then when you get all that down and the liner tested and put the composite over it, then you you start putting your protective cover in or drainage layer, whichever one it's called.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

sand.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

And sand rock. Some of 'em put dirt in now. And it's uh then you put your leech eight corridors in. Yeah. And uh laying your pipe, putting your leach eight rock in, getting it all hooked up to a sump, sump riser, and then running your force main to the to tie it in with their leach aid system.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

I mean it's it it's a complicated deal. It's a big deal. And the other thing that everybody needs to understand is as each layer goes in, you gotta survey it, you gotta certify it, it's gotta be documented because it all goes into the state, right, Wendell? It does. It doesn't matter what state you're in, every one of these are regulated. Yeah. And I mean it's a big deal about keeping our groundwater safe.

SPEAKER_04 22:46

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 22:47

So when people go to a landfill and they're getting rid of their trash, nobody understands about how engineered and how sophisticated the process really is.

unknown 22:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:58

They just dig a home full of trash in is what they think.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

That's what they think. That just is not the reality.

SPEAKER_02 23:05

That is not real.

SPEAKER_03 23:06

It ain't it ain't real. It ain't real. So so look we're blessed to have just a ton of landfill work right now. I mean guys I think we got as many active landfills right now as we've ever had do you think that's true? There's a bunch of them I mean it's impressive the amount of work that we got right now. So Matt, can you just run down this lengthy list of stuff we got, who's doing what, and let's just give some of these guys some praise for all the work that they're doing.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Yeah absolutely that's that is where I wanted to start is you know the root of our success comes from our guys and our team and our people most of our guys in the field have been with the company a long time 10 plus years at least right Wendell. Most of them have worked their way up through the ranks and they're out there day in day in day out giving it all they got and that's why the clients are asking for them back. They're just doing stellar jobs knocking it out of the park. They're doing it the right way. Absolutely so you know with that 30 year relationship with waste management we've got two current landfills with them. One of them is at Wyke County up near Sparta and you know Brian Jones is up there there's 1500 yards of excavation it'll be a year and a half job by the end of it I think they've added some work to added some roads and box covered stuff like that. Good stuff. 18 total acres lined which is significant pretty good size. Also with waste we've got eco safe landfill Rafe has been up there for all of last year I know a little bit before that and that's a tough site. It is just a tough site.

SPEAKER_03 24:51

You know shout out to Rafe tough sight but look that guy's been working it the client loves him he's making it happen I praise to Rafe on that one right there.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Absolutely when the when the dirt's coming out of the ground at 50% moisture it's it's hard to beat to get it to 25 there's a lot of dry in there small problem right one small problem small problem yeah and uh Matt Munn's up there with Rafe and you know both of them have been with the company a long time work their way up through the ranks and I think Rafe's to run a bike hole he worked with Dink right he did that's where he started yeah Rafe started with Dink Jones down outside of Cartersville at the Lowe's distribution site back in the day. It's been a minute yep and then we so we rolled into the Republic work which you know that's a 16 year relationship with them. Yep let's see over in South Carolina we got Northeast landfill Kevin started over there it's a hundred thousand yards of excavation a six acre cell being lined that's near Columbia South Carolina Lee County is not far from there and both you know Kevin and Ian Roberts a new face to our group or he's been with us but he's been recently promoted. Yeah shout out to Ian he's a great guy spent time with him over there doing some training great great guy great leader does a good job you know he came up we got introduced by him with one of the TVA guys was telling us that uh one of his kin folks is needing a job and met with him and hired him and it's been great ever since.

SPEAKER_03 26:33

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 26:34

He's come up through it run equipment you know he's just he was on the Florida job with Kevin let's say he'd been he's been doing a great job.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

Awesome man. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 26:44

A lot of potential there Kevin's training him up and those guys are killing over there. Interesting side note on Kevin if you ever get to talk to him ask him about his pet parrot and he's got a bird that's pet parrot okay random tidbit of information fun fact yes random does it talk yeah real coaster awesome yeah you have video proof of that it's a love hate relationship I think but uh also with Republic we've we're at a new site that we've bid in the past it's over in Mount how do you say that Gilead I think yeah Mount Gilead it's Uari Land Ferry Stephen Ball's over there and we've worked for that EM before and done well for him but this is this is a new site for us so that's over there toward Ashboro North Carolina right in it east of Ashborough it is east of Charlotte east of it or east of Charlotte south of Ashborough done a lot of work over there from a DOT perspective several years ago it's different ground good place to be so we're we're happy to have Steven over there he's been with the company what yeah twenty thirty years a long time probably thirty years he started as a laborer and worked his way up through the through everything. He's you know Jeff Ball Tanya Ball he's kin to them that's that's a good good setup right there. Great guy. They're moving moving 2300 yards and six six and a half acres to be lined over there and our last Republic site is on the western side of the state at Haywood County landfill. Used to be a Santec site Republic bought them out and western side of North Carolina. Yep over near Waynesville. Mr James Manus is there he's worked at the last three or four we've built on that site. On that site yeah so he's experienced with the the landfill manager and he knows the material and he was one of the ones involved with Iris Glenn when we first started it he's running drill. Cool drilling helping Paul Lucre over drill shoot and get the rock out yep so once again he worked his way up and he's he's running jobs and killing him so our one of our newer clients Capital waste we've we worked for them last year up at Ray County and just landed a job with them at Murray County in in North Georgia near Chatsworth. So Cullen Carter and Keith King are over there they've got a hundred thousand yards to move and ten acres to line and then that brings us to Smith you want to talk about it Wendell? Smith we we had a good relationship where Corey moved in the first start Corey's over there now and he's what have we been there Matt seven years? Yeah six seven years. Yeah and we've been we've been good enough to to do work where they've asked for us back and hopefully we there's another one coming up for bid and matter of fact Spencer's gone to it right now to pre-bid over there so that'll be another job coming up hopefully we'll get in on it.

SPEAKER_01 29:57

Yeah it seems to be a a cool trend as you're talking thinking about you know you've got these consistently long-term relationships that have built what's kind of cool is it's turned into it seems like consistent long-term leadership that's part of these projects you've got guys that have been with you for a long time that retention rate when you talk about guys that have been around for years that it seems relatively uncommon but I think that's just kind of a cool testament to what what you guys are doing.

SPEAKER_02 30:24

Well it's pretty cool when Matt you remember back when Manus moved in on a site where Rafe was and then Rafe had to call the the EM there and tell him you know he's a good guy because they were wanting Rafe back. Yeah Rafe was tied up on another site and and now that Rafe told him that he was a good guy and all that stuff it worked in good and it just it's once they know your name and ask for you by name back you've you've made your mark on that deal. You made a good relationship he he was calling and asking Rafe asking us send Rafe send Rafe send Rafe and Rafe finally called him and I think verbatim said hey Manus has been building these things way longer than I have you're in good hands.

SPEAKER_03 31:13

Yeah that's cool and the guy believed you he said to have his word word on it right yeah yeah well look the Wright brothers landfill work I mean it's a testament to relationships it's a testament to hard work a great product look it it's what all of us here at Wright Brothers wants you know that's what we want you know as the guy that used to be on the outside looking in dad gum I hated competing against y'all I did not appreciate it at all Wendell but sitting here where I'm sitting now what a blessing what a cool deal and this is a testament to how you're supposed to treat customers. Yeah how you're supposed to treat customers how you're able to can have a continued relationship over all these years.

SPEAKER_02 32:02

So Matt Wendell any final closing thoughts on landfill work and all the good work that you guys have done and all the all the good stuff the guys have done no my my biggest thing I want to say thanks to all the guys man they they theyed it out they work you know Corey's been over working seven days a week to try to get that Smith County done all the other guys busting her butt and I want to just tell them thank you. And they make it happen. Yes they do absolutely and our PMs are great and they've all been here a long time and the Rick and the Ryan's and Spencer Ryan Jason Spencer they've uh we got four PMs that that push all of our work so good folks. Yeah Brian Brian Bidness Loveless and Matt Schofield in the office too taking care of everything where be easier on the guys in the field. Yeah so it's a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

Great team well guys we appreciate y'all appreciate everything you do thank you for just thank you for representing the organization so well over the years and we all just need to take a lesson from how you guys have built this relationship with all these customers and keeping it going. We all need to learn that we all need to keep that going. So guys thank you for the story today we appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

So with that Garrett I think uh I think it's time to wind this one let's wrap this up power of trusted relationships good stuff guys thank you so much for sharing and thank you for tuning in this has been Talking Grit That's gonna do it for this episode of Talk and Grit thanks for listening and thanks to everyone out there putting in the work day in and day out.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

If you liked what you heard be sure to follow the show and share it with someone who knows the value of hard work. We'll catch you next time right here on Talking Grit.