Photo provided by: Heather Wanniger, Sweet Lemonade Photography
By FRED KRONER
fred@mahometnews.com
Mahomet Chamber of Commerce 2020 Award Winners
Overall Business of the Year – Area Garbage, Bud Boller
Small Business of the Year –Yellow & Company, Elizabeth VanHoutan McDermith
Food Service Business of the Year – Filippo’s Pizza, Brigi and Jerry Paris
Health & Wellness Business of the Year – The Rock Counseling Group, R.J. and Staci McNicholl
Startup Business of the Year – Ruff Dayz, Tim and Lacy Belangee
Community Servant of the Year – Mahomet-Seymour schools superintendent, Dr. Lindsey Hall
Volunteer of the Year – Raptor Power Systems, Evan El Koury
The Mahomet Daily will post a series of profiles on each of the award winners, who were recognized at the annual Chamber of Commerce banquet on Friday night at Mahomet’s Grace Church. To see the other articles, click on the link associated with each business name above.
AREA GARBAGE, Bud Boller
Bud Boller’s small-town background is the reason he found Mahomet an appealing community.
He spent his early years in the Bismarck-Henning school district, north of Danville.
“When we moved to Champaign (when Boller was in seventh-grade), it was like moving to Chicago,” he said. “It was such a big city.”
Later, as he and his wife, Carol, started a family, they each held a similar desire.
“We wanted to raise our kids in a smaller community,” Boller said.
They moved to Mahomet in 1981.
As a youngster, looking to the future, Boller had a specific vision.
“My dream was to own a full-service gas station and have a speed shop next to it to build race cars,” Boller said.
Had he pursued that interest, Boller likely would have been out of business decades ago when full-service gas stations started vanishing.
Instead, he followed in his father’s hauling business, L.W. Boller & Son.
The operation was based in Champaign, and it didn’t take long for Bud to find himself in charge.
“By the mid-1970s, they said, ‘You take care of things,’” Boller said. “I wanted to help my dad to the point where he could retire.
“We had 30 to 35 competitors in Champaign-Urbana, but we did decently with the business,” he added.
Even after the family relocated to Mahomet, the Champaign business kept going strong.
Word of mouth soon provided similar opportunities in Mahomet.
“I had a pickup truck with a box in the back and people would say, ‘I need this hauled,’” Boller said.
When he sought to expand his hauling service in Mahomet, however, he discovered that the process was slow.
“I tried to get a village license, but they were limited,” he said.
By 1983, Boller had made inroads.
“I bought out a little hauler that had maybe a hundred customers,” he said, “and then it grew and grew.”
As he became more entrenched in the community, Boller began selling off his business interests in Champaign.
“We fought through fierce competition, and with the help of good employees, made it through,” Boller said.
To keep the businesses separate, the Mahomet operation was called Area Garbage Service. Boller preferred Area Disposal, but that name was taken.
His company now runs routes that services areas to the north to the Gas Company Road, to the south beyond Seymour, to the east to Rising Road and to the west to County Line Road, providing residential service once a week.
They run two trucks four days a week and one truck on Friday. Area Garbage Service has approximately 2,000 customers.
Boller has three full-time employees, a part-time mechanic and a part-time office worker. Two employees have worked with him for more than 30 years.
Now 69, Boller said, “I don’t get on trucks too often any more, but I can.”
His business, Area Garbage Service, took home the top prize in Friday night’s annual Mahomet Chamber of Commerce banquet at Grace Church, receiving the Business of the Year award.
Just to be considered, Boller said, was enough to make him appreciative.
“I’m not a guy who needs patting on the back,” he said. “Being nominated is plenty.”
Not one to seek the spotlight, Boller has been active in various community events, but generally in behind-the-scenes capacities.
“Part of being in business is trying to do things for people,” Boller said. “I try to stay under the radar.
“I don’t like to put my name out there, but people I do business with know I do things for the community.”
He willingly provides garbage canisters for events such as the Music Festival and the Craft Beer Festival and hauls them away, but declines reimbursement.
“I’m a Chamber member and it’s how I can pay back and do things,” he said.
He has seen a multitude of changes during his years in the profession.
“When I started, we paid $100 a year for a license and that included free dumping,” Boller said. “Then it went to $100 a load (to dump).
“Now, we pay $1,000 (per load) to dump and it can be as much as $1,200 (based on a rate of $91 per ton).”
As Boller reflects on nearly 40 years as a Mahomet resident, he offered a wry observation.
“We’ve lived here and have been a part of the community, but you never really get to be a townie,” he said, “but we’ve gotten pretty close.”
That belief is reflected in the number of people he knows who also know him. It’s almost like when he’d spend time as a child with his grandfather in Covington, Ind.
“I liked when I waked downtown with Grandpa and everyone knew who he was,” Boller said.
