Rep. Tim Burchett

I was certified to teach shop, took a few art classes, and apparently I got an art certification, I think, on my certificate, I believe.

But anyway, so I can weld and fix motors, and I can burn your house down if you need it wired.

I can't do that very well.

But in all the other machine shop stuff, I can do that, or I could at the time.

So I came up with this idea of taking all the city's yard waste, and I presented it to then the city mayor.

I said, what are y'all doing with it?

I said, we take it to the landfill.

And they could pay me a reduced fee of what they take it to the landfill.

I would grind it and then sell it.

Well, we had a blizzard that year.

So we did about, seems like we did 30,000 tons that first year.

And they paid me around, it was under 20, but just say $20 a ton.

So I was making $600,000.

And this was in 91 or 92.

I was been out of college for a little while, worked in the business world.

And, um,

I literally, I would have been a million, I became very wealthy, but I had to grind it.

So it cost me about a half a million dollars.

So I was still clearing $100,000, living at home with my family, who's public educators.

So $100,000 was pretty righteous bucks, but then I sold it.