Talking trash – Meet Marathon’s first garbage lady

Talking trash – Meet Marathon’s first garbage lady - A man riding on the back of a truck - Garbage truck

Maybe you have seen her slinging trashcans into the back of the Marathon Garbage Services (MGS) trucks, but Tresa Jutz isn’t afraid to get a little dirty. Waking up long before the roosters start crowing, and leaving the shop at 5 a.m., Jutz is the first woman garbage-man at MGS.

“I was raised with all boys,” she said wearing her purple gloves and hooking up a dumpster to the back of the truck. “This is nothing.”

Moving to Marathon in July – her brothers and uncles work for a garbage company in Kentucky –she saw MGS was hiring. She moved up the ranks quickly, including getting her commercial driving license to start driving the garbage trucks.

“Tresa is a highly valued employee. I wish I had more employees with her work ethic and desire to advance within the company,” said MGS Owner Greg Konrath. “She’s motivated and it shows when she’s on the job.”

Before moving to the Keys, Jutz, whose children are grown, worked at a Toyota factory in Kentucky. With friends in the Keys, she made the move south.

“If I am going to be in the Keys, I want to be outside enjoying it,” she said, cracking a joke about being in the fresh air.

When asked about challenges, Tresa couldn’t think of any, “I couldn’t ask to work with better owners and co-workers.”

The real challenge starts when she gets off work, usually between noon and 1 p.m. She is still knee-deep in Hurricane Irma cleanup at her trailer. “I’m still ripping it apart,” she said, sleeping at a friend’s house since the storm. “I am usually at the trailer until dark and then get up and do it again the next day.”

Kristen Livengood is a Marathon High School and University of South Florida grad, mom of two beautiful little girls, and wife to some cute guy she met in a bar. She enjoys red wine, Tito's, Jameson, running (very, very slowly), and spearfishing.