 These are the hard-working men and women that do the tough jobs that help keep El Paso County moving. I don't care what happens on the job, as long as all my guys go on the end of the day. This is Tough Jobs. I'm Jotsman. I'm Jamie, general maintenance foreman of El Paso County. Sweet, nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So what are we doing out here today? Today we're going to go pick up some dead animals, some trash on the side of the road, and later on today probably meet up with our tree crew and cut some trees. Okay, so is this what your day normally looks like? Yeah, normally our day consists of two to three guys cutting trees, one or two guys picking up trash, and then during the summer we do ride-away mowing, ditch lines, medians, and stuff like that. Okay, so El Paso County is a pretty big county. So are we going all over the place today? Do we have a set schedule? Yeah, we'll be all over the place today. We're going several places. We'll be all over the county. All right, well let's get started. Let's get out of here. All right, let's go. Okay. All right, so we're not going to go far here the first little deal. Did you just get a call or something? So we got a service request for this area that came in this morning. Okay. For a deer and a dead dog. A big part of our job is just kind of like a big game of hide and seek out here. So how do you deal with all the smells and all the grossness? It's just something you get used to. Every animal is different. You do. Eventually you get used to it. Sometimes you'll get one that'll gross you out. Yeah. You gag a little bit. Do you ever worry about diseases and stuff like that? Yeah, we do. We take precautions for that. We do wear our gloves. If we get one that's particularly nasty, we do have nitrile gloves that we'll put inside our leather gloves just to protect from blood-borne pathogens and disease and stuff like that. Yeah, I'd be so worried about that. We'll get your hands dirty today. That's completely okay if we don't. I am completely okay with being an observer. No, no. You're getting dirty. So what we're looking for here is some kind of dead animal. Is that it? Yeah, that's it. So now this is where all that safety stuff comes in. Okay. John's going to get turned around here and he'll probably pull up on the other side of this animal and then we'll get you to put it on the truck. Okay. No, that's okay. Yeah. No, I'm good. No, you're good. I'm absolutely good with absolutely disease watching. Okay. So we're going to get out. We can go ahead and get out of the truck. So Jamie, what are we doing right now? So we're going to go pick up this dead animal on the road. It's a dead deer. Uh-huh. So what we're going to do is we'll get the tailgate down and we'll bring it down to the ground and we'll get the animal loaded up and we'll pick it up and put it on the back of the truck. So do you typically do this with just one person or two people? Typically we do it with one to two. Two's better than one. Okay. Just safer, especially with bigger animals. Sure. Two's a lot better. Go ahead and show me what's next. Okay. So we'll get the tailgate down on the truck. Now I know I said I would help, but I think I'm going to rescind on that invitation. No, no, no, no, no. You got to help. And allow your friend John to help you. You're not going to help? Um... Come on. You can do it. Oh gosh, no. Come on. You're not going to help? Um... Let's grab the front leg. Oh my gosh. You can do it. It's not that bad. Let's grab the front leg. Oh my gosh. Grab the front leg. You can do it. That's part of the job. Oh, that's a good thing. Oh my gosh. So just dragging up on the truck and moving around. Oh my gosh. So dragging up on the truck? Nope. You've got it. Here you go. Oh, that is... Oh, it smells funny. Well, not funny, but like, you know. Oh, and there's blood. Oh gosh. So then we'll pick it up on the back of the truck bed. Oh, and the leg is broken. Very thankful for the job you do because I could not do this. Then we'll just shut the truck and we go on to the next one. And we're going to do this how many times today? A bunch. Oh, okay. So you'll get good at this by the end of the day. When you think of a dead animal on the side of the road, your image of it and like the reality of doing it are like two very different things. Oh yeah, for sure. So you ready to get out of here? I need a shower now. A shower? Oh gosh. Your day's not even closed over yet. Oh. I can't believe you made me touch that. It's so different to think of like, oh, I see a dead deer on the side of the street, right? And then actually go and physically interact with it. It's, it's like a completely different ball game. Yeah. I'm still like, I'm still so grossed out by it. So I don't understand how you're able to do this every single day. It's just part of the job. It's, it's a nasty job that has to be done. Yeah. But we'll try to get you into some different stuff too, not just dead animals. We got a few we need to pick up today, but we'll get you into some other stuff too. We have some trash requests we need to go out and get. Okay. So we'll go do some of that. And like I said, maybe we can get met up with my tree crew today. Hopefully. I don't know if that'll happen, but we'll give it a shot. Do you ever come home just like completely covered in like, blood and stuff? I wouldn't say covered. You know, you get a lot of time on your boots maybe. Gotcha. Sometimes on the bottom of your pant legs, we try not to get dirty just because it's, you know, the smells aren't great obviously. Right. And stuff like that. So we try real hard not to get it on us if we can avoid it. Um, days when we're out doing like our tree work and stuff like that, those days, yeah, we get dirty. Um, the saws are thrown sawdust and stuff like that. You get naturally dirt flying around in the air and stuff like that. Um, so yeah, we come home pretty dirty days like that. And then when it's obviously summertime and hot out, you know, you're sweating and stuff like that. So that just makes it that much worse. Oh, was it another deer? Oh, that one looks very. 337 through on three. I got to flip around. Um, it's back there on Goss Hawk. That looked very, very brown. Yeah. That one's going to be nasty. Yeah. I am not touching that one. I need you to know that right now. All right. Let's get out and see what kind of trouble we can get into. I am not ready for this at all. You'll be good. You can do it. Um, no, I am not touching this one. You need to know this now. So for this one, we're going to do a little bit different. Um, this one's a little bit more gory and messy. Oh, it's completely smushed. Yeah. So we're going to use nitrile gloves, disposable gloves to handle this. Um, I won't make you do it. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks so much. You did so well on the last one. You get to reprieve this time. So we're just going to put this one on the truck same way as last time. Although a little bit more gory. So not going to be as fun. Oh my gosh. It's an, yeah, it's absolutely in bits. You know, I was actually expecting it to be like in separate chunks. So I'm very happy for you that it was still sort of intact. Yeah. Just a little. That's kind of an example of how gory it can get. And like I said, we take extra precautions when it gets like that. Just so we are safe. But that's about as nasty as it can get. We'll go on to the next one. Yeah. Okay. Great. Sounds great. Let's go. So right now you're, I mean, you're seeing probably, I'm not going to say the worst part of our job. Um, cause you know, the trash can get particularly bad. And you'll probably see a little bit of that this afternoon or later in the day at least. Like just illegal dumping. Yeah. Um, you'll see some of the hazards we run into with that. You know, as bad as the animals seem to be with, you know, fluids and whatnot. Right. We can get into areas where the homeless have been. Um, and we have to go in and clean up after them. Yeah. Um, there's a whole new set of hazards with that. Right. Um, we can get into, um, human waste. We can get into, um, needles is the big thing. That's true. Use needles. Um, so that's something we have to be very conscious of. When we get into that, we normally are using shovels, rakes, uh, pickers. We don't stick our hands into that stuff because you can't see what you're putting your hand into. Exactly. So we have to be super, super safe at that point. So as bad as the animals are, the trash into things come with a whole hazard in and of themselves. This job that you do, even though it might seem simple, right? Like you're picking up dead animals and stuff, right? There's definitely a safety component to it. Um, how do you guys, like, make sure you're staying safe? Tell me some, some crazy stories. Um, as far as keeping ourselves safe, um, you know, just over time with training and experience really out on the road, you learn to really watch. Um, you got to look before you get out of a vehicle. Um, you don't ever lower your head out on the roadway. You always try to keep eyes in the back of your head, so to speak. And you really use your senses. You listen. You're listening for cars, you know, maybe accelerating at a higher rate of speed or decelerating. Um, those are all sounds you can hear out on the highway and can be indicative of something going to happen. Um, also obviously tire screeching. Yeah. Um, heart breaking, stuff like that. You'll hear those kind of things out on the road. And that's something to be aware of. Um, you know, we've had, you know, in my career, I've had everything from, you know, distracted driving to, with people on cell phones to people just get focused on what they see on the side of the road and their vehicle actually depart the roadway. Where are we headed to right now? So right now we're headed down to Mark Shuffle Road. Okay. Um, back actually near our shop. Um, we've got two deceased antelope, um, that are highly visible down there. Okay. Um, we have to get stuff like that. Just so the general public, we get it out of their sight. Um, something they don't have to look at, because a lot of people, you know, they don't care to look at stuff like that. On their morning and afternoon commute. So we try to get the stuff in highly visible areas going very fast. What's, what's different out here? So out here, we really got to be really aware of traffic out here. Um, we've got traffic coming on both sides of us out here. Um, we're in a median, so we're kind of trapped right here if something were to happen. We don't have a lot of ways to run here. Um, best thing we could do if something were to happen would be getting in front of this truck and let the truck take the impact if there's going to be one. But we need to try to make this as quick as possible so we can get out of here. I'm just definitely not safe. So I'm going to have you help me. Come up and grab the rear leg. We'll just tow this on the truck. Okay, now step up here. Step up. Yep, come on, right there. Come on, help me. Yeah, you got to help me. Step up here. Oh gosh. Okay, now grab the leg and we'll just tow it right here in the back of the truck. It smells terrible. Right there. Good job. Pull it down. And go down. Hold on. Oh, that smells absolutely horrible. Good job. Oh my goodness. All right, good job. We are done with dead animals for the day. Oh, I'm so glad. So we're going to go on to something more fun. So what are we doing now? Now that we're done with animal pickup for the day. So now we're going to start trash pickup. Okay. We've got a crew that went out over the weekend of private individuals. That was part of our adopter road program. Okay. So we go behind them now and pick up the bags that they picked up. So we're going to be working on Mark Sheffle right now. We're working on more live traffic instead off the side of the road. So we'll be a lot more careful here. We're going to be stopping in like turn lanes and stuff like that to grab trash. Okay. So we're going to be a lot more careful. Oh, like that bag of trash up here right there? Yep. So we've got bags of trash up here on the side of the road. Uh-huh. We'll just jump out and grab them. Okay, John. Come around in front of me, please. So you can just grab them. Yep. Give them a toss. You want to try it? No, that's okay. You didn't bring your gloves? You can go ahead. I'll do the next one. Okay. That's all there is to that. Okay. We'll go on to the next one. I was really going for expediency here, you know? There we go. Next one. Okay. Get your gloves this time. Okay. So you grab this one and throw it over the side of the truck. It looks very heavy. It might be. Good job. You almost didn't get it. It was heavy. John, you may be able to cut through this breaker right here. I don't know. You turn around a constitution. I was just getting ready to call you. I'm like, I think that was it for this side. So I'm going to flip it around. Yep, 10-4. I'm ready. When John pulls forward. Okay. Just throw all the stuff in the back to pick up. Just watch some of the bags might be heavy. Just give it a toss in the back of the truck. Ew! What happened? Ew! It's liquid on me. Are you okay? Yeah, no, that's it. You've got the rest. That's it. Oh, come on. No, I don't want to throw liquid on me. It's probably just water. You don't know that. You're guessing. I don't know that. But I'm just guessing. You're okay. You're still vertical. All right. We'll go on down the road to the next one. Shower. I don't even got bad yet. Definitely not a bad. I do not want to sit in these liquids. Because I went over my face and then I just sprayed my face. What'd you learn? To not do this job. To fling it the other direction. Exactly. Ew! It's all over my jacket. You'll live for it. So now here we've got a little bit more of a hazard. Watch for nails. And stuff like that in these pieces of wood. Careful. Watch me. I'm going to hit myself. You two can put the tailgate down. Okay, no, we got it. Don't do that. Safety first, sir. Safety first. Put me in the head. I just like it. I'm starting to go. I guess that's why we have hard hats, huh? Yeah. That illustrates it perfectly. That was a better one. All right. On to the next one. Okay. Yep, I got a s**t all over me. Okay, pull off the road here, John. Okay, now we got a ton of stuff. So now he's picking up right over the ingate. Keep your mouth closed. Don't get it all over you. So much liquidy stuff. It's just water for the most part. Are you sure? Yeah. Positive. Do I lie to you? Yeah, yeah, I think you would. Like, it's literally a dirty job. It is. Very much so. Yeah. It's tough. It's taking care of the dirt. That's right. It just seems like no two days are the same, right? No, our job is always an adventure. Every day long. Every day. All day long. We do different stuff every single day. Yeah. You never know what you're going to come up to. You know. It might be just the everyday dead critter, you know, illegal dumping, but we come up on things like growth site dumps. So like illegal marijuana grows. They dump stuff on the side of the road when they're done with it, and that can be hazardous material. So we have to be cautious with that and handle it the right way because, you know, we could get hurt or come in contact with something that could make us sick. We've got some trash dumped on the side of the road here we're going to pick up. Okay. So the fourth is we're getting to the time of year we need to watch for snakes out here under things. So when we tip things up, we're going to have to look underneath them. I always want to keep something in front of you. That way if it were to be like say a rattlesnake, they can't bite. You got something in front of you. So you grab the bag and you'll just flip it up and you'll be able to look past it. You'll be able to keep something in between you and whatever might be underneath it. So go ahead and grab that one and we'll just throw these in the back of the truck. See, you should have kept it between you. I mean I'm trying, but it's like in a weird angle. Yep. So roll it up like this. Towards you. That way you can see if there's anything beyond it. So just take these and we'll throw them in the truck and then we'll get these other things. So just give those a toss into the truck. They should be light enough. Okay. So we'll grab these one at a time. Okay. Just come over here. They've got handles on them. Okay. Turn and go this way. Oh great. Okay. I love this. You good? All right. I feel like I have dirt all over my face now. You think so? Yeah. Okay. Go ahead. Look, there's still a piece of the roadkill left right there. You want to pick it off? I'm okay with touching that. Thank you. Okay. Just checking. Thanks so much. You're welcome. You're very kind. I know. Okay. One at a time. We'll put these on the truck. Okay, this one here. Let's see if we can launch it clear to the front of the truck. All right. Hold up. Hold up. Three, two, one. Good job. And going down. I feel extremely strong and very, you know, like I'm doing a service for the community right now. You're doing great. Thank you. Thank you. You're doing a great job for the citizens. Okay. What's your next? All right. On to the next service request. Okay. We're going to go look at a homeless area. With this job that you do, even though it might seem simple, right? Like you're picking up dead animals and stuff. Tell me some crazy stories. We get stuff on the side of the road that's kind of, you know, cool, so to speak. We get everything. We've had a whole boat dumped on the side of the road. We've had a slide in pickup bed camper dumped on the side of the road. Several months ago, we had a 3,000 pound safe dumped on the side of the road that was an adventure to get off. It pushed our equipment that we had available to us at the time to its limit to try to get that thing loaded. There's a lot of laughs getting it on board. Or do you think it just fell off or did somebody actually like dump it? No. Most of what we see is not stuff that falls off. You can tell it's intentionally dumped. Okay. So Jamie, where are we now? Tell me a little bit about what's going on here. So we're off Las Vegas Boulevard. We're going to pick up some trash left behind by some of the homeless people. Okay. So we got this couch here that was left behind. We got to get it picked up. So we'll take it over here to the truck and get it on the lift gate. Remember, lift with your knees, not your back. Okay. Well, let's see. You able to pick it up? Got it. Okay. Let's just walk sideways. Okay. Can you get on? Okay. So I'll need your help putting it on the truck. Yep. I think I'm on. Okay. Hang on. We'll find out. Now we're going to tip it up. I'm going to tip it towards you and pull it back a little bit. Except I'm falling. And we'll roll it on the truck. Just like that. All right. We're going down. What about these guys? We can throw those on. So just throw them on the truck. It'll go. Don't worry. Try a little harder on the second one. As you can tell, I don't do manual labor on the daily. What do you do daily? I'm an office worker. You're an office worker? Yeah. So I got the perfect person for this, huh? Exactly. So this is a very change of pace for me for sure. Nice. Well, you can get payback. You can make me do office work sometime. I don't know. You might get a proper cut with all that. So Jamie, we were almost done with our, what we were doing earlier. And then you got a phone call. Yeah. So we got a phone call stating there's a tree down out here blocking a road. So we had to come out here and handle it. Get the tree out of the road, which it looks like somebody else already is doing. Cool. We will hop out here and see what's kicking here. Right, Jamie. So we are back where we started this morning. We've gone out and done a couple of different things to say that this is a tough job that you do. And not just you. I would actually like to have John come over really quickly and join us so we can thank you properly for being a part of today. You're welcome. Yeah. What is your favorite part about working for El Paso County? The variety. Yeah. Well, for El Paso County, the people is my favorite thing. But in my job, it's the variety of what we did. Yeah. I think I can also say now with confidence that it definitely was a day with a lot of uncertainty, right? And you kind of have to go with the flow and be comfortable and have a variety of a skill set to do, do what you do. Well, this was an absolutely perfect day. I don't think I could have asked for a better day with a better opportunity to ask for a better day with a better team out there today. Thank you both for everything you do for El Paso County, for the Department of Public Works. Thank you for coming out. Yeah. We had fun with you today. Thank you. And until we see you guys again next time, for El Paso County, this is Tough Jobs.