A treasure at the transfer station in Montville
Aug. 19—MONTVILLE — Early Wednesday afternoon, a pickup truck came downhill and stopped next to a shipping crate. A man exited, lowered the gate and climbed into the bed.
Transfer station worker Florence "Flo" Turner ran to the back of the truck and giving a ready signal, held onto a bed frame as the man pushed it toward her waiting arms. Together they moved it inside another crate.
"I didn't know when I signed on for the job I was going to be a professional furniture mover, but here I am, killing it," Turner said, smiling.
Over the course of the afternoon, at least 15 other residents drove their vehicles down to the bottom of the hill at the town's transfer station, where they were greeted with smiles or waves from Turner.
Turner, uniformed in jeans, a T-shirt, weathered brown work boots and an orange safety vest, works hard to make trips to the transfer station a good experience. Her dedication to that goal is reflected in this tidy collection of bins, trash pits and compactors.
"Most people, I've been here so long, I know them by name. I know their children, I know their grandchildren," Turner said. "And everybody knows me."
Turner, 55, has lived in town for almost 40 years and held many roles in town, including on the Zoning Board of Appeals and Farmers Market commission, but she is most celebrated for starting the transfer station's "free area," where residents can drop off used items for use by other residents. She has run the free station for 19 1/2 of her 21 years at the station.
"I really love my job and a lot of my job is recycling," Turner said, sitting among an array of Fisher-Price bicycles, high chairs, a rain-soaked "Monopoly" board game and other assorted used goods. "And I saw a need. You know, like I said, people didn't want to throw stuff out. But they had the stuff they didn't want. So you know, this filled that need. And a lot of people benefit."
Turner, who also operates a front end loader at the station, has a real passion for reducing waste.
"My kids are big on recycling because of me. My daughter calls me the recycling police. When she comes to my house, she's like, Is this recyclable?" Turner said.
"She recently is moving to a new apartment and she said, "Mom, they don't have a recycle bin. There's a dumpster. So, you know, who do I call to get a recycle bin? Because, you know, I don't want you to be mad at me for not recycling," Turner said, smiling.
From trash to treasure
Back when Turner started working at the transfer station, she said there was no place for residents to drop off or pick up items someone else could use, so everything ended up getting thrown away.
Shortly after getting the job, Turner decided the practice was wasteful, and started a campaign to urge people to call the mayor's office.
"What if Joe Schmo comes in here and he wants a couple of five-gallon buckets or plastic milk crates to put in his work truck or his work van for his tools so they're not all over the place?" Turner said. "Do you want to give them to Joe or would you rather throw them away and pay like $68 a ton to incinerate them?"
"And people were like, 'Oh! We'd rather give them to Joe,' " Turner said.
The next week, the town approved a free area for the station.
For the first 15 years, Turner ran the free area on top of a dirt patch, and trash compactor boxes were used to hold items. When it rained, she said the boxes would sink into the mud. Cats would get inside. Often, she would end up having to throw the items away.
When the federal government began distributing ARPA monies after the COVID-19 pandemic, Turner noticed many people and agencies were requesting money for their projects.
"And so I thought to myself, You know, I have a project that I'd like to get some ARPA money for," Turner said.
Turner researched how to write a proposal, submitted it and was awarded $25,000 to spruce up the free area. She hired a contractor to install a concrete and asphalt pad and repurposed orange barriers from the Public Works Department to surround the area.
The yellow walls of the crates that sit atop the pad and the bright colors of children's toys contrast with an otherwise colorless landscape.
Resident Steve Meyer, who often brings items to the free area, praised Turner's work to transform the station.
"I think she's pretty sharp at what she's doing here. Right on top of things," Meyer said. "And since she took over the transfer station here, she's really made it into something that everybody in town could actually be proud of."
"She loves to talk to people, but obviously she doesn't take too long to have a conversation with (before) she's off and running again," Meyer said.
Wednesday afternoon, Turner picked through her curated collection of used toys, books and other used goods, taking out the old items to make room for new ones.
"I like it to be clean down here," Turner said. "I don't feel like it has to look like a dump, you know."
Roy Dohna arrived in town about 21 years ago, at the same time Turner started at the transfer station, and has lived there since. He and Flo are like family, he said, as he walked over to drop off some recyclables.
"Roy's one of our regulars," Turner said. "We have a special place in our hearts here for our regulars."
Dohna's son Matt, who graduated from Montville High School in 2014, completed an Eagle Scout project for an enclosure around an American flag retirement box next to the free area. The box, which was getting beat up by the elements, held the flags before they would get picked up by the VFW, Boy Scouts or American Legion.
Turner has been talking to Boy Scouts about two more Eagle Scout projects for the transfer station. One would bridge the two yellow boxes with a roof and the other would add a community bulletin board where people could post signs about yard sales, spaghetti dinners, and other town events.
But long before the new improvements, Turner had a knack of helping residents find exactly what they need and building relationships with them.
"So people that are in need or people just starting out, maybe they need some furniture. I get people all the time, saying 'Oh, we just got an apartment, you know, our first apartment. What do you have?' "
She tells them, "You tell me what you're looking for, you know, and if I see it, I'll put it aside for you. I don't mind."
Gary O'Bern, 82, is a resident who has been coming to the transfer station for most of his life. While everyone has their faults, O'Bern said, no one could accuse Turner of not being generous.
"I think that Flo always looks out for people. She always tries to help them," O'Bern said.
While the free area can turn into a mess as people rifle through the boxes to see what treasures are at the bottom, Turner said she doesn't mind cleaning it up.
"I enjoy the purpose that it serves. I believe in it," she said.
