Five miles away in Mortons Gap, resident Chris Phelps thinks of him as one of the friendliest Hopkins Countians he’s ever met.

“Any time you go to the Barnsley Convenience Center, Danny is always there to greet you with a smile,” Phelps said. “It doesn’t matter if it is raining, cold or hot outside, Danny is always smiling, and it makes the world a better place.”

To others, he is just a caring friend — and Hartline has hundreds of them from Suthards to Mortons Gap.

Hartline, 75, serves as attendant from his little white shack, watching the customers as they roll in and helping them with any heavy lifting or major removal. For hundreds of central Hopkins County residents who are not covered by city sanitation, the Barnsley Convenience Center is their only place for waste disposal.

But that’s a good thing for Hartline, who is now in his seventh year at the facility. It is an opportunity to keep up with what’s going on with his neighbors.

“I don’t mind coming to work,” he said. “This is not one of those jobs where you just hate coming in. I get to meet so many people. I have my regulars, and I can tell who they are when they drive up.

“I really like the older ladies,” he continued. “When I see them coming, they never even have to get out of their cars. They’ll just pop the trunk and I’ll get the garbage out for them. They appreciate it so much. Sometimes they’ll even bring you a cold drink or a bottle of water to show it.”

The attendants’ office within the little white shack is literally adorned with artifacts of yesteryear. As the saying goes, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” Nothing could exemplify that more than what lies behind the shack’s front doors. Virtually everything from the furniture to the coffee machine — even the office equipment — was salvaged by attendants when residents were otherwise going to throw it all away.

“You could not imagine what people want to throw away,” Hartline said. “They don’t want it anymore, they don’t want to take the time to have a yard sale. All they know is that they want to get rid of it.”

According to Hartline, the two most discarded items at the Barnsley Convenience Center are vacuum cleaners and flat screen televisions. Both items are reusable, as with other major electronics, so they lie in collection until a recycler comes to retrieve them. That is, unless Hartline or one of his colleagues picks them up to give them a little TLC.

Many items that find themselves in the recycle bin or garbage compactor are actually still in relatively good working order. A “broken” vacuum cleaner might simply be clogged, a lamp may just need a new light bulb or all a really good book needs is an avid reader who will appreciate it. If not, many truly useless items can be recycled into something new, and that is why the Barnsley Convenience Center has several bins to accommodate a variety of reusables.