This is a special time for us at Harrison Industries. As we prepare to celebrate the holiday season we are also celebrating the end of the company’s 75th year in business.

Seventy-five years! Our family-owned company has been in operation since before any of our current employees were even born. What began as a two-person business – E.J. and Myra – has grown into one of the largest family owned trash businesses in the United States and for that we are very proud and grateful. Myra will be 93 in February and we are very happy to still have her with us as Co-founder.

Our family has made major investments in the company. We have combined this with a strong commitment to recycling and they have been worth it—today we are a healthy company that is still growing.We wish to thank you, our friends and customers for working so hard to make our motto work---Keep Recycling It’s the Right Thing to Do.

We wish you and yours the very best this Holiday Season.

Myra, Ralph, Jim and Myron

Outgoing Mayor Carl Morehouse presents E.J. Harrison & Sons with a proclamation on their 75th anniversary in business. Accepting the award from the Mayor (R) are (R to L) Nan Drake, Jim, Jenny, Ralph, Ted and Lynn Harrison. This occurred at the changing of the guard on December 3, 2007 at Ventura City Hall. Immediately following this presentation, Christy Weir was elected the new Mayor and Bill Fulton was elected the new Deputy Mayor.

Picture: Harrison presented plaques of appreciation to city clients and other honorees for their recycling efforts. Included are (L to R) Trudy Arriaga, Ventura Unified School District Superintendent; Ventura Mayor Carl Morehouse; Camarillo Mayor Jan MacDonald; Supervisor Kathy Long; Marty de los Cobos, CSUCI; Fillmore Deputy Mayor Cecelia Cuevas; Ojai Councilman Joe DeVita; Gail Kaufman, Assistant Analyst for the Thousand Oaks Public Works Department; Assemblywoman Audra Strickland; and Carpinteria City Manager Dale Durflinger.

In 1932, America was in the midst of the Great Depression, and its citizens, desperate for a “New Deal,” elected Franklin D. Roosevelt president. It was also the year that Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party rose to power in Germany. The cost of a first -class postage stamp in 1932 was two cents. The average price for a new car was $610 and gasoline was 10 cents a gallon.

It was also the year that E.J. Harrison fashioned a truck from several car bodies and began making a modest living by hauling his neighbors’ trash to the Ventura dumps. Harrison’s young wife Myra helped with the books. Harrison Industries was born.

Seventy-five years later, Myra Harrison, who turns 93 in February, remains with the company as founder. Her oldest son Ralph is president while her other sons Jim and Myron serve as vice presidents.

Harrison is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year as one of the oldest and largest privately owned trash collection businesses in the U.S. It services about 80,000 customers in Ventura, Camarillo, Fillmore, Ojai, Santa Paula, Thousand Oaks and surrounding unincorporated areas of Ventura County with residential, commercial and industrial service. The company also collects trash in Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County.

On Tuesday, Nov. 27, Harrison held a party at the Gold Coast Recycling and Transfer Station in Ventura. About 200 persons attended, including Assemblywoman Audra Strickland and Ventura County Supervisor Kathy Long as well as mayors and city council members from Harrison’s client cities.

Harrison took the occasion to present plaques of appreciation to its city clients for surpassing the recycling mandates of Assembly Bill 939, the 1989 state law that requires each city and county in the state to cut the amount of solid waste they send to landfills in half. While the statewide average currently stands at 52 percent, cities served by Harrison have the following diversion rates: Ventura (66 percent), Fillmore and Carpinteria (60 percent), Camarillo and Thousand Oaks (56 percent) and Ojai (53 percent).

Harrison also presented plaques to Ventura County California State University, Channel Islands and the Ventura Unified School District for its recycling efforts.

Picture: Mike Marostica proudly shows off his first place medal from the 2007 Senior Softball World Championships.

It wan’t the World Series, but Mike Marostica will take it. Marostica, Harrison Industries Controller, is a starting outfielder elder for the Tequila All-Stars that won the Men’s 55 Division AA title at the 2007 Senior Softball World Championships in Phoenix, Ariz., in October. “We’ve been there before and come close, but this is the first time we won everything,” Marostica said.

The Tequila All-Stars, comprised of players from throughout Ventura County, won in dramatic fashion. They needed two consecutive wins over the Ohio Silverados, who had defeated them 13-12 earlier in the double-elimination tournament. The team came through, beating the Silverados 9-7, and then 15-11 for the championship. Marostica played a major role, incredibly batting over .800 to earn a spot on the All-Tournament Team. “I made three outs all weekend,” Marostica noted.

Marostica’s prowess with a bat in his hands is nothing new. In his younger days, he played five seasons in the minor leagues for the Oakland Athletics organization, making it as high as Double A.

“The A’s at the time had an outfield of Joe Rudi, Rick Monday and Reggie Jackson, so where was I going to play? Marostica asked. “This was before there was free agency, so to go to another team, I had to be traded, but it didn’t happen.” Seeing the writing on the wall, Marostica hung up his spikes. “I had my degree (from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo),” he said, “and I didn’t want to waste it.”

His dreams of making the majors and playing in the World Series dashed, Marostica began his business career. He joined Harrison Industries 17 years ago.

By winning in Phoenix, Marostica and his Tequila All-Star teammates qualified for the 2008 Senior Softball-USA Tournament of Champions in Polk County Fla., in February. “We’ll give it our best shot,” he said.