Dirty Jobs - Part 1
Someone's got to do them
By Elli Morris CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Becky Davis, the infant toddler program coordinator at the Bon Secours Family Center, has her hands full caring for 6-month-old Macy Beaver and other children who attend the daycare center.

Ever find yourself complaining that coworkers left dirty dishes in the sink? Or, about the smell when someone left their lunch spaghetti in the company refrigerator for more than a month? Or, what about when someone at work forgot to wipe the toilet seat after they used it?

Those are minor inconveniences compared to what some folks have to deal with on the job. What if being filthy and working with nasty smells was actually part of your job description?

It takes a hearty constitution and a great sense of humor to be a member of the "dirty jobs" task force, but thankfully there are people out there who fit the bill. They deserve recognition and appreciation because without them, Chesterfield would not be such a beautiful, clean and accommodating place to live and work.

Below are just a few of the people who do the dirty work for us:

When school is in session, Margaret Surley, day team leader at Falling Creek Elementary School, has the dirty job of cleaning the cafeteria twice a day.

Samara Musselman Director Bon Secours Family Center St. Francis Medical Center

"They're a lot of fun. You can sing to them, pat them, rock them," coos Samara Musselman, director of Bon Secours Family Center at St. Francis Medical Center, about the babies and toddlers she works with at the new daycare center.

Fortunately, it's a good thing those little ones are so snuggly, because taking care of a group of them can be a very messy job. On average, the center cares for eight children in the toddler group each day. "If we have to change diapers regularly, which is four times a day if not more, then at the end of the day, that's 32 diapers. That's a lot of dirty diapers in an eight-hour shift," Musselman concedes.

The rest of the job isn't a piece of cake, either. Toddlers are on the go, and whatever comes out their nose or mouth gets carried along for the ride.

Matt Golob (left) and Kevin Walke, both employees at Cross Creek Landscaping & Nursery, handle up to 1,000 rolls of sod each week.

"You have to wipe the child down, then find out where he's been in the environment, wiping up as much as he touched or was around, [to] keep it clean for the other children."

When the toddlers' teeth start coming in, they often drool, and if all of the children in the daycare center are at that same developmental stage, Musselman confides, it can be a challenge to stay on top of it all.

Bouncing the cute, bitty babies can lead to surprises at times, too. Musselman was rocking one little boy when "blap" - he spit up on all 16 folders in her open cabinet drawer.

Another messy part of the job involves those little tears that need to be wiped away when the babies start "singing," as Musselman and her staff call the children's cries. One child might begin to sing the "You're kinda familiar but I don't really want to see you right now" anxiety song, which can lead to others joining the band with an empathetic voice of their own.

Or, it could just be a signal for the caregivers to start the changing and cleaning process all over again.

Margaret Surley Day Team Leader Falling Creek Elementary School

As we grow up, we don't instantly learn how to control all of our bodily functions and quit making messes. Every elementary school custodian has been called to the rescue of a classroom inundated with the fowl odor of suddenly exposed stomach acids. The stench wafts from the floor into the air, gathers on everyone's nose hairs and commences to threaten a chain-reaction among the remaining classmates.

But for Margaret Surley, day team leader at Falling Creek Elementary School, "there's nothing to it. It's in my job description."

After working for the county for 20 years, Surley is very nonchalant about the entire affair.

"I've trained myself so I can handle it," she says, but for children it remains one of the Seven Wonders of the World that adults can possibly get near the stuff. Surley uses a chemical she sprinkles out like sawdust. It "takes no time at all" to turn the smelly liquid into a dry powder that can be swept up, put in a bag and disposed of. The chemical, with a scent similar to Pine-Sol, not only dries up the mess, it helps get rid of the smell and germs which are often the culprits responsible for the accident in the first place. It still kills germs and cleans up the area even if the child ate too many ice cream sandwiches right before an hour of tumbling and rolling during recess.

"It's not like a daily event," assures Surley. "It's very seldom."

Cleaning up the cafeteria and removing the trash, on the other hand, is a twice-daily event, after breakfast and lunch. The unflappable Surley takes it all in stride. The students are "average messy" so there's very little food she has to remove when she's cleaning up the tables. Taking out the trash doesn't rattle her, either. Turning a mess into a safe, clean environment is part of her job description but the ability to eloquently handle such messes must be in there somewhere, too.

Gene McAuliffe Supervisor Cross Creek Landscaping & Nursery

"Kids will be kids," but sometimes adults have jobs that let them do kid-like things, like playing in the dirt. Gene McAuliffe, supervisor at Cross Creek Landscaping & Nursery, doesn't spend all day playing in the dirt, but he certainly looks like he does. He insists that laying sod isn't difficult but "oh sure," he declares, "absolutely, you get filthy."

It wouldn't be too dirty of a job if the sod were dry, rather than moist, but if the sod becomes dry, it's an unusable, dead product. So, he makes sure the sod stays nice and moist, and he, in turn, gets covered in mud. If the ground is workable in the winter, his jacket ends up covered in mud. In the summer, his shirt gets dirty from the first batch laid down.

If he tried to stay clean, he'd end up going through multiple shirts so he just gets dirty and stays that way until the job is finished. What isn't wiped off on his clothes gets stuck under his fingernails and covers his hands. Some people wear gloves but McAuliffe finds he can grip better with his bare, exposed hands.

"It doesn't take long to clean up," McAuliffe advises. "It's just like playing in mud. It's not like working with grease or something."

Laying sod requires good common sense about lifting, knowing to bend down and using your legs, not your back, to pick up the heavy sod and bend again to lay it down. New people to the job have to get used to it but with 20-plus years in the business, McAuliffe can attest that "you definitely stay in shape" even if you get dirty in the process.

His washing machine, however, probably takes the brunt of his labor with weekly doses of good, clean dirt. Lucky for McAuliffe, that part of the job is left to someone else.