A-1 Sanitation Services

A-1 Sanitation is a company with deep roots that was established in 1961 by Tom Sanders. Tom, a son of a farmer, grew up knowing what hard work and persistence was all about. After serving in the Army for two years during the Korean Conflict, he came back to his home town and decided that farming was not to be his life’s work. He worked in a service station for three years before deciding to buy the business. Three years later he sold the station to go into the trash business with a partner, hence A-1 Sanitation was born.

When the Campbell Soup Company came to Paris, Tom was providing trash service for the construction project. He was asked if he could provide a portable toilet service as well. Tom saw an opportunity to create a needed service that no one else in the area provided. At first he rented some units from a company out of Dallas and then later built ten wooden portable toilets. His service vehicle was a ½ ton pick-up truck, with a 200-gallon tank which used the vacuum from the gasoline engine to pump the units. It was a learn-as-you-go operation, but he learned fast.

The years saw many changes in the industry and in Tom’s life. He started expanding into septic system pumping, restaurant grease trap service, and industrial pumping. As business began to pick up, Tom decided to sell his part in the trash business to his partner and focus more on the pumping service.

Along with his business, Tom’s family also grew. Tom and his wife Barbara raised five children while managing the daily demands of a growing company. His youngest son Kelly went with his dad many times on jobs as a young boy and learned the trade first hand. Kelly went to work for A-1 Sanitation full time in 1990 and still carries on his fathers’ belief that honesty and hard work are the cornerstone of a successful business.

Kelly and his wife, Stephanie purchased A-1 Sanitation from Tom in late 1996 and began improving the day to day operations of the company. They started by purchasing larger more efficient pumping equipment, updating the portable toilets, and adding a GPS system to keep track of their growing fleet of vehicles. The billing office computerized their entire accounting department and they incorporated in January of 2000. Today A-1 Sanitation employs six people and is Licensed in Texas and Oklahoma serving a 50 mile radius of Paris.