A job he can't refuse

Harold Scarborough has seen a lot of strange things during his 20 years as a refuse collector for the town. But the 11 toilets filled with rainwater stacked amid a pile of garbage Thursday was an oddity even for him.

“If something besides rainwater comes out of this, I’m going to s--t a brick,” Scarborough said.

He smirked as he tossed the toilets in his truck, guessing that the discarded toilets were the result of an apartment renovation project.

As a refuse collector for Chapel Hill, Scarborough’s job entails many activities that aren’t for those with light stomachs.

Part of his job is dead animal removal — which involves clearing possums, raccoons and sometimes pets — from roadways within town limits. He said on average he clears about seven bodies a week, and deer are by far the most common carcasses.

Of the calls made to the Public Works Department to remove the animals, a majority are made by people who smelled the carcasses while exercising outside, he said.

“The smell is the worst in the summer, but you learn to cut your nose off,” he said.

Scarborough said that sometimes deer are too decomposed to lift by hand, so a knuckle boom truck picks them up in a manner he compared to a crane game at an arcade.

“You don’t want to fight buzzards over a deer; it’s theirs,” he said.

When he’s not keeping the streets clean of animal remains, Scarborough is responsible for collecting white goods — large products that do not fit into dumpsters, such as couches or refrigerators.

After he hoists the objects into his truck and gets to the landfill, he sorts them into categories based on building materials.

It’s hard work, but Scarborough said he doesn’t mind.

“It’s easier if I do it alone because I know what I’m doing and I can work at my own pace,” he said.

“I’m just glad to be working. It puts food on the table.”

Scarborough, 47, who moved to Chapel Hill from Mississippi 30 years ago, lives with his wife on the outskirts of town. He also has a daughter in the Army who is stationed in Hawaii.

He said he knows that some people appreciate his work, imitating a Scottish accent to recount a story of a pleasant Scottish woman who offered him a soda on a hot day.

But not everyone is so kind, he said.

“Some people will call to complain that one thing is left behind instead of to say thank you for everything we cleared away,” he said.

As his first load of the day came closer to an end, a sweaty and tired Scarborough stood back to evaluate his work.

“Will I drink to this later? Yes, I will.”



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