Help Shadyside Worms Overcome Equipment Crisis

Shadyside Worms has been providing residential composting services for over 10 years in the Pittsburgh area. We are proud to be the first to offer this service, and to have pushed for years to create a market for composting businesses like this one. A big part of out business is our New Holland Workmaster 37 mid-size tractor ("Holly") that's used for composting. It's been the heart and soul of weekly operations at Shadyside Worms for 5 years, loading in food scraps every week, turning compost throughout the year, and loading in finished product in the spring. This past October, just as the last payment for the tractor had been made, the tractor shut down unexpectedly. It was taken to the shop, and rental machinery was acquired by a separate company to continue operations.

After 3 weeks of misdiagnosed problems, I was finally told that the main CPU(the main computer component) for the tractor failed for no reason, and needed to be replaced. Now, unlike fuel lines and filters, wheels, hydraulics and other maintenance, there's nothing an owner does to maintain a CPU. I was told the repair would cost $3100, but even worse, that since New Holland does not keep this component in stock, it would take 2 months to rebuild this part. I was also told this was my only option. On top of the 3 weeks that had already passed for diagnosis, I was forced to take on rental machinery for another 2 months, totaling $11,400 in rental costs.

In the last month of that rental, our Toyota Tacoma, the white pickup truck you might see driving around Pittsburgh each week to pick up food scraps, broke down as well. Although less of a surprise, the bad news was that the repairs for the truck would also take 2 months, and a rental truck would be needed. A rental truck has been acquired each week for pickup service, but the overall costs for renting a truck are estimated to be $4,400 by the time the Tacoma is fixed and returned.

The cost of rentals for both of these repairs will cost the business a hefty sum- $15,800. Along with the actual repair costs for the tractor and the truck, we are looking at a total of $28,300 worth of expenses.

I've worked hard over the years to build a business model that keeps costs low for the customer, while providing enough financial cushion for the business to handle these situations. Unfortunately this situation goes beyond what we can cover. This crowdfunding campaign is being set up for $15,000, to try to recover as much of the costs for rentals as possible, while the business itself tackles the costs of repairs. Thank you greatly for your support of this small business, as we try to push ahead and continue to grow and help composting become the norm in Pittsburgh.

Sincerely,

Shadyide Worms