After 19 years of serving Brown County, the Knight family made the difficult decision to sell Knight’s Trash Removal to Rumpke Waste & Recycling.

Rumpke took over pickup for commercial businesses on Aug. 1. Knight’s also recently sold the residential pickup to Rumpke as well.

“Our family has appreciated the opportunity to provide more than 300 Brown County businesses with friendly, reliable service,” John Knight said in a press release.

“We want to make sure our customers continue to receive the same quality of service they deserve. We are confident Rumpke will provide just that.”

Rumpke is working with Knight’s Trash Removal to “ensure a seamless transition with uninterrupted service,” said region vice president at Rumpke Eric Curtis said.

“I’m confident our team will provide top notch service to our new customers. As a fellow family company, Rumpke takes great pride in providing the best customer experience possible.”

Rumpke is one of the nation’s largest privately owned residential and commercial waste and recycling firms. The company provides service to areas of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.

Knight’s Trash Removal owner Art Knight said that there were a few factors in contributing to their decision to sell, but it was mostly due to problems in finding help.

“We couldn’t get anybody to work,” he said.

“At one time we had eight drivers, then we were down to just three.”

At 72, Knight said he was also “tired of working.”

“We hated to have to do it,” Mary Ann Knight said. “But like Art said, we’re at the age now that we want to back down a little bit.”

Art and Mary Ann’s son John will continue to operate Knight’s Corner — where the trash removal company was located — with roll off and drop off removal for larger waste items. He also owns Johnny’s Grub to Go with his wife Ginger, which is also located at Knight’s Corner.

John and Art started the trash removal business together in 2003 at Knight’s Corner.

Art’s father, Leo, bought the land for Knight’s Corner in 1940. By 1946, after some difficulties with getting materials due to World War II, the Knight’s Corner grocery and convenience store was complete.

Gas pumps were added and it evolved into more of a convenience store.

The decision to sell was not easy.

“We had so many customers, but just felt like we couldn’t give them the service they needed,” Art said of the sale.

“It was a very hard decision. We just hate it so bad, we really do.”