ONLOCATIONA P R I L 2 0 0 7

THE TEAMMichelle Nowka owns and operates At

Your Service (www.portable-restrooms.com), a portable restroom business in EastJordan, Mich., with her husband, FrankFilardo. They have two full-time employ-ees, Mike Lapeer and Jason Blain. Nowka’schildren Grant, 10, and Michayla, 7, helpout when they can.

COMPANY HISTORYNowka’s story is one of turning lemons

into lemonade. She and her ex-husband

purchased the restroom portion of JordanValley Rentals, a party rental company, in2000. Nowka bought out his portion of thebusiness, giving it a new name. With 400TSF Company Inc. units and 26 FleetSeries units from PolyJohn Enterprises,the company services rural areas in abouta 100-mile radius of St. Ignace — just overthe Mackinac Bridge in Upper Michigan.About 80 percent of its business is con-struction, with about 20 percent specialevents and private party use.

MAKING CONNECTIONSThe Blissfest Music Festival

job came along with the JordanValley company. But Nowka sayskeeping units clean and fulfillingpromises to clients helps them

retain special events such as this, thelargest event her company services.

“We are all heroes when we get there,”she says. “The entertainers will come up tous to say, ‘We have gone all over. No onekeeps their toilets as clean.’ ” And it’s easyfor Nowka to gauge customer satisfaction— she and Frank and their two employeesalso camp onsite with their families, rightalongside the revelers.

THE JOBBlissfest Music Festival, now in its

27th year, is a “mini Woodstock” event offolk music, dance, food, arts and camping,held over the second weekend in July on a40-acre farm. Last year, 3,700 peoplecamped on the grounds; Nowka estimatesattendance at the festival was more than

THE JOB: Blissfest Music Festival

LOCATION: Cross Village, Mich.

THE PRO: At Your Service, East Jordan, Mich.

Popular Michigan folk festival and its longtime portable restroom provider make beautiful music together and ensure happy campers

By Sharon Verbeten

Singing Their PraisesSinging Their Praises

A bank of restrooms is set up near one of the music stages at the Blissfest MusicFestival in Cross Village, Mich. Below left, a technician is dressed for comfort atthe informal folk festival. Below right, Michelle Nowka boards one of the companytrucks at the festival grounds. (Photos courtesy of At Your Service)

double that with additional weekend traf-fic and vendors.

BY THE NUMBERSAt Your Service provided 84 rest-

rooms. Forty units and two ADA unitswere positioned up front near two musicstages. Groups of eight units were scat-tered throughout the festival/camp-grounds, and two units were set up at thefestival’s “general store.” Nowka says theyalso bring extra restrooms to have onreserve if they should need them. Festivalorganizers provide sinks, made from 55-gallon drums with spigots.

The number of units At Your Servicebrings increases each year, as Nowkareminds organizers to not only considerthe number of campers and festival atten-dees, but also to account for musicians,vendors and volunteers — which she esti-mates adds about 500 to the head count.

KEEPIN’ IT CLEANGetting ready for Blissfest each year is

a time-consuming event. “We start theweekend before,” Nowka says. She andFrank — often with the help of familymembers — take three trailers of units tothe site and set them up. The Thursdaybefore the event, they set up camp andmake sure all units are ready to go. They

return at 2 p.m. Friday. “On theway there, we pass our toiletpaper vendor and pick up 20cases (48 rolls per case),” Nowkasays. By midday Friday, there’salready a three-mile line of vehi-cles to get into the grounds.

The first cleaning is done lateFriday (since vendors and festivalsetup staff have already been onthe job). Units are cleaned twicedaily with pressure washers andGreen Way Products deodorantsin hand. They use two Ford F-550service trucks built by MarshIndustrial with 600-gallon waste/300-gal-lon freshwater tanks.

Teardown begins Monday morning,when they clean all the units and rinse outthe holding tanks. They take a few unitshome then, and, “every day after ourroute, we grab 18 to 20 and bring themback,” Nowka says.

TEAMWORK … WITH COMPETITORS?

“We dumped 9,000 gallons (of waste)over the course of the festival,” Nowkasays. How is that possible with such smalltruck capacity? At Your Service has aunique approach to turning competitioninto teamwork.

“One of our largest challenges in thisarea is disposal of waste,” Nowka says.Without a permit to land-apply, all wastemust be taken to a treatment facility locat-ed far from the Blissfest venue. Since itwasn’t cost- or time-effective to travel thatfar daily, Nowka says, “I called my com-petitor, who does toilets and septic. Wehooked up with him.”

Her competitor housed a 2,200-gallonservice truck on an adjacent farm; daily,Nowka transferred septage from hertrucks to his, which was then taken to thetreatment plant. “I’m pretty much friendswith all my competitors,” she says, and itseems to have worked in her favor. “I’m astraight shooter. I’m not out to put anyoneout of business.”

“I’m pretty much friends with allmy competitors. I’m a straight

shooter. I’m not out to put anyone out of business.”

Michelle Nowka

This is the At Your Service campsite at Blissfest.The PRO's staff stays at the campground so thatthey can provide timely service.

Blissfest attracts many free-spirited visitors and vendors whodisplay artistic goods for sale, including these colorful flags.

Festival attendees use some of theAt Your Service restrooms.

An At Your Service service truck isstopped near a placement of TSF Co. Inc.portable restrooms.

WORDS TO LIVE BY

While the former nurse never planned onbeing in the portable sanitation business, her ex-husband’s departure served as a catalyst to jump-start her fervor for the job. “I needed to make surethe people in my area were getting the clean rest-rooms they deserved. I wanted to change the rep-utation of the restroom business,” she says.

Nowka’s proud to be a female-owned busi-ness, and she says her clients appreciate that too.“They think I’m putting ‘mom’s touch’ into (therestrooms),” she says. And, to that end, she tellsher customers, her units are so clean, “my mothercould have lunch in my restrooms.” �

Michelle Nowkacleans restrooms atBlissfest.

Upscale event provides impetusto lease two VIP restroom trailers

While At Your Service looks forward to servicingthe epic Blissfest each year, it also gears up for theDart for Art — a one-night fancy art auction featuringlocal artisans and a $250-per-plate dinner at a local

equestrian club. Two deluxe restroom trailers by Ameri-Can Engineering

raise the elegance level at the event, according to At YourService owner Michelle Nowka. The first year the company wasoffered the event, Nowka said organizers asked for upscalerestrooms; that prompted Nowka to make a significant invest-ment in leasing the trailers.

“They don’t have anything like that (in the area),” she says,which sealed her decision to add the luxury units to her fleet.

At Your Service uses an Island unit — which features fourindividual stalls with a sink. The Royale includes four individualstalls with oak doors, two sinks and a mirror on the femaleside; four urinals, one stall and two sinks on the male side.Both units include marble countertops, AM/FM stereo, air con-ditioning, hot/cold running water and other posh amenities.

For At Your Service, Dart for Art is a chance to showcasethe breadth of its offerings — all in afairly low-maintenance setting.Nowka’s staff brings the trailersin the day prior to the event,ensures everything is workingand leaves. Event staff clean thetrailers, and all At Your Servicehas to do is pick them up thenext day.

Nowka’s investment in thetrailers is beginning to pay off;she also uses them for RedCross fund-raisers, weddings andevents in Michigan’s upscalemarina district, and is hoping toexpand service throughoutMichigan.

“We are all heroes when we get there. The entertainers will come up to us to say, ‘We havegone all over. No one keeps their toilets as clean.’ ”

Michelle Nowka

MORE INFO:

Ameri-Can Engineering

574/892-5151www.ameri-can.com

Green Way Products

800/241-7951www.greenwayproducts.net

Marsh Industrial

231/258-4870www.marshind.com

PolyJohn Enterprises

800/292-1305www.polyjohn.com

TSF Co. Inc.

812/985-2630www.tuff-jon.com

© 2006, COLE Publishing Inc.Reprinted with permission from PRO™

April 2007COLE Publishing Inc.

P.O. Box 220, Three Lakes, WI 54562800-257-7222

www.promonthly.com