Portable Sanitation Association International

Page 6 PSAI Industry Retrospective - the 70s NATIONAL LISTS OF PORTABLE RESTROOM OPERATORS EMERGE From evolution of the concept to the revolution of the product, in early 1970 a group of business leaders began to see the need for communication and standardization in the industry. Attempts were being made to qualify and to quantify the number of portable restroom companies in the U.S. Several months before, Ken Holyoak began a project to compile a list of all portable restroom operators in the U.S. that were found in the Yellow Pages. He found that Charlie Beard with Virginia Fiberglass was working on a similar list. In fact, lists of portable restroom operators were being compiled by the restroom manufacturers as well as the new start-up deodorizer companies. As more and more products shipped, the industry was finally beginning to be identified. A FORMAL TRADE ASSOCIATION IS EXPLORED According to Ken, in 1970 a group of businessmen met with Al Legasse of Executive Management Consultants, Inc (ECI) at the Keybridge Marriott in Washington, DC to discuss the formation of a formal trade association. Mr. Legasse had political connections with Charles Colson, Special Counsel to President Nixon. Colson's office served as the President's political communications liaison with organized labor, industrial organizations and similar lobbying groups whose objectives were compatible with the administration's. NOVEMBER 1971 THE FIRST MEETING IN NEW ORLEANS In November 1971, the first meeting of the "PORTABLE SANITATION ASSOCIATION" (PSA) was held in New Orleans. ECI represented by Al Legasse and Ed Able managed this meeting. Al Hilde appears in the 1971 Board of Directors photo and has an excellent first-hand account of this meeting. "As to why we formed the Association, there is an offensive answer and a defensive answer" explains Mr. Hilde. "On the offensive side of the equation, we wanted to contribute to laws and regulations being enacted to require portable sanitation on job sites and at public gatherings. On the defensive side, we wanted to protect our industry from orneous legislation." As far as the overall feeling from that first meeting, Mr. Hilde remembers it as "nervous, edgy, and a little guarded." is seems reasonable since each of these individuals had begun their businesses in the isolation of their own local area and were fiercely independent – doing everything from building their own units to servicing them as well. Al remembers that his company, Satellite Industries, was initially "viewed with some scepticism since we were the largest service company at that time and sold products as well." Soon, common experiences and problems were identified and "we discovered that we were much stronger and wiser as a group." According to early records of the Association, "some of the early active portable restroom operators at those early meetings were: James Consolo, Cleveland; Mark Nottingham, Los Angeles; Harvey Heather, Los Angeles; Al Hilde and Ted Anderson, Minneapolis; Frank Phillips, Atlanta; Bill Stratton, San Antonio; Irv Juster, Schenectady; Don Rainwater, Washington, DC; C.W. Harbert, Dallas; Leroy Eggar, Jacksonville; Stan Freedman, Miami; Paul Levine, Philadelphia; and the Churchills (father and son), Roanoke." In addition, PSA records show that "some of the earlier associate or supplier representatives were George Harding and Ed Craon; Frank Van Balen, Virginia Fiberglass; John Taylor, Satellite Industries; and Gene Barnhart, TSF Company." In 1972, at the first PSA Convention in Miami Beach, Larry Miller and Associates were hired to manage the PSA, replacing Executive Consultants.

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