Curbie Sanitation

OUR FAITH AND OUR ROOTS HAVE MADE US WHAT WE ARE TODAY.

Curbie Sanitation is a family business founded on Christian principles that has been proud to serve most of unincorporated Chatham County over the last fifty years. We feel truly blessed as a family and a business, and hope to pass this on to our customers on a daily basis. If you would like to learn more about who we are and how we got here, please read on….

John (Edward) Boaen was born in 1929 in an area known as Cedar Hammock off of Ferguson Avenue. As the oldest boy in a family of 11 siblings, he learned early about hard work and responsibility. He quit school in the 6th grade to help support his family, going off for days with his younger brother to catch shrimp and pick oysters. Then at 18, he joined the army, serving his country in Japan for 2 years. When he returned to Savannah at the end of his enlistment, he started to date the love of his life, Joan Allison. Joan had been born and raised just down the street at the other end of Ferguson Avenue. Her father, Johnny Allison, was the owner of Allison’s grocery store, (which is now our office) a center of activity in the Montgomery community. Edward and Joan were married in September of 1953, and moved in with Joan’s parents who lived next to the store. In 1958, they were blessed by the birth of their only child, Allison.

In 1960, Edward and Joan were approached about buying a small garbage service totaling about 20 people from the neighborhood, and Boaen’s Sanitary Service was born. With nothing more than their customers and a broken down pick-up truck, they worked together (Sometimes with her driving and him pushing, as the truck had no reverse!) to build what is now Curbie Sanitation. Their daughter Allison literally grew up with the business. She played next to the shop and trucks, and rolled down the hill in new garbage barrels. Her father taught her how to drive the garbage pick-up truck when she was thirteen, and by sixteen she had worked in the office, and on the routes picking up trash.

Today, the tradition is continued by Allison’s son, Clayton. He made the commitment to follow in the family business early on, and started working on the back of a garbage truck at the age of sixteen. Clay’s years of working in the business, along with the wisdom his grandparents and mother have imparted to him have given him the foundation to carry Curbie on. Joan is still active in business, having a guiding hand in the day to day operations. Edward was also involved in the business until July of 2011, when he suffered a massive stroke. He passed away at home surrounded by his family on December 5, 2014. Although we miss the loving leadership of this simple, God fearing man, his memory lives on in the lessons of faith and life he taught us. His reliance on his Heavenly Father continues to influence all of us. We not only feel truly blessed to have such a great business but a close family as well, and we strive to continue this legacy for our posterity.