Amid Covid Risk, Refuse Crew Presses On

Rudolph High has driven through snowstorms and heavy traffic and bouts of bad health during his nearly three decades working for the city’s Department of Public Works. This is his first time helming the wheel of a city trash truck during a global pandemic.

“If we can continue our normal work day, then we can stop the people from panicking,” he said as he leaned across the wheel, turning east down an eerily empty stretch of Chapel Street. ​“We’re gonna get through this.”

High, 71, a driver with the city’s Refuse Crew, is a 28-year veteran of the public works department.

Early Thursday morning, High drove city laborers William Telford and Thomas Pittman-Dennie along their weekly Fair Haven trash collection route, which is bounded by Haven Street to the west, Chapel Street to the south, Ferry Street to the east, and Grand Avenue to the north.

High, Telford, and Pittman-Dennie all said that they showed up for the 5 a.m. trash collection shift not simply to help keep the city clean, as they seek to do every day on the job.

They said they also donned their yellow-striped DPW uniforms and worn leather gloves out of a sense of civic obligation to the community they serve, particularly during this time of social disruption and public fear surrounding the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. 

“We’re just trying to give the taxpayers what they paid for,” said Telford as he loaded a large brown toter filled with garbage into the back of the city dump truck.

He noted with pride that Gov. Ned Lamont had designated trash and recycling collection, hauling and processing workers as ​“essential” service providers in a recent emergency executive order designed to mitigate the spread of the infectious respiratory disease.

“If we don’t do this,” asked Pittman-Dennie, ​“then who’s gonna pick this up?”

Altered Schedules

In a Wednesday email press release, DPW assured city residents that the municipal trash and recycling crews ​“are reporting to work as usual in order to maintain scheduled routes and keep our city clean.”

The department called on residents to make sure that garbage bags are tightly closed before being placing them inside brown trash toters.

“We are asking everyone to do that for our crews’ safety and our community’s protection,” the email read. ​“As well our crews continue to practice social distancing for everyone’s protection.”

The email also said that street sweeping that had been scheduled to start April 1 has been placed on hold, as have all bulk trash pick-up appointments. The residential waste transfer station at 260 Middletown Ave., meanwhile, remains open, Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

“Though our offices are closed, you can still report your public works issue to See Click Fix or leave us a message on our general line: 203 946 – 7700 and we will get back to you. Please be patient with us as we attempt to navigate these new times.”

Roads Less Clogged

Behind the driver’s wheel of his truck, High peered into a tall sideview mirror to look for oncoming traffic and smiled as he listened to the jazz playing from the satellite radio he keeps right next to his seat.

“It’s a very serious thing,” he said about the pandemic. ​“I liken it to the Spanish influenza,” which killed over 50 million people around the world a century ago.

He said he is concerned about being uniquely vulnerable to the novel coronavirus considering his age. But he also stressed the importance of keeping the city clean at a time when seemingly everything else seems turned upside down.

“The main thing you don’t want to do is set off a panic,” he said.

High said he grew up in White Plains, N.Y., and moved to Connecticut four decades ago because the state ​“seemed like a place of opportunity.” He worked as a carpenter’s apprentice for three years, for the state for another three yeas, for Cheshire’s public works department for another few years after that, and ultimately landed at New Haven’s DPW in the early 1990s. He’s been working for the department ever since, first as a part-time laborer making $6 an hour and now as a full-time employee.

In some ways, he said, the pandemic has contributed to a slightly safer work environment for him and the laborers on the back of the truck. That’s because the state and local orders to stay home if possible have resulted in a significant reduction in traffic. High said he had seen laborers struck by cars before while working trash collection duty.

“Now I’m not as worried about the men,” he said. ​“It’s safer to do the job because there’s less cars on the road.”

His concerns over traffic have been replaced by a different set of concerns — over how best to protect himself and his colleagues from the novel coronavirus.

“I think we should try to get some masks,” he said, in addition to the latex gloves and hand sanitizer with which the trucks are now equipped. Trash collection workers in Pittsburgh held a wildcat strike Wednesday as they demanded more protective gear.

High said that his Bible study as a Jehovah’s Witness has helped soothe his nerves during this pandemic.

He said the prospect of spending more time outside hiking whenever it’s safe to travel again has also buoyed his spirits. He pulled up his cellphone to show pictures of a recent hike he went on up a snowy Mt. Washington earlier this winter.

“As soon as it’s over,” he said, ​“I’m going to New Hampshire.”

High said he recently got out of the hospital due to a long-standing health issue unrelated to Covid-19. He also recalled plowing and picking up trash during seemingly weekly snow storms when he first started on the job nearly 30 years ago. He and the city have cleared those hurdles in the past, he said. Together, the city will do the same during this pandemic.

“One Day At A Time”

On the back of the truck, Telford, 55, and Pittman-Dennie, 32, took quick breaks from their jogs up and down the sidewalk collecting trash toters and dumping their contents to reflect on how they’re holding up amidst the pandemic.

“We’re staying safe,” said Telford, another 28-year-veteran of DPW. ​“We’re making the best of it. It’s pretty much the same, staying vigilant.”

He said that he and his colleagues have been wearing latex gloves underneath their usual leather gloves during the outbreak. They’ve also tried as hard as they can not to touch their faces. Whenever they have a chance, they use hand sanitizer and wipe down the driver’s seat and passenger’s seat of the truck.

“I’m not invulnerable,” he said. ​“I could get it like anyone else. I can’t prevent it if I don’t know where it’s at.”

He said he hopes that this crisis is a reminder to the general public of the hard and essential work that trash collectors do every day, and serves as a goad for further appreciation of their labor.

“This is a dirty job” as it is, said Pittman-Dennie (pictured), who’s worked for DPW for seven years. In addition to wearing extra gloves and not touching his face, Pittman-Denie said he also tries to not wear the same jacket every day and to up his cleaning routine.

“We’re just taking this one day at a time,” he said.