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Couple Plans Wedding at Town Dump

Posted on: Tuesday, 15 July 2003, 06:00 CDT

Rockie Graham and Dave Hart met at the town's transfer station, where he had just begun working and she had just begun bringing her recyclables.

Now the couple is planning to get married at the spot they first met. For their wedding, they plan to be transported in a bucket loader driven by a transfer station attendant.

Hart said the transfer station - what used to be called the dump - is the ideal spot for their wedding. After all, he is now the manager and she is a part-time employee.

"I think it's perfect," Hart said. "This is where everybody knows us."

Graham admits she was reluctant at first.

"He was so enthusiastic about it," she said. "I think he just broke down my resistance."

The two met when Graham began using the Bethel transfer station after Newry, where she lives, became part of Bethel's service area.

For their first date, on the day before Thanksgiving in 2001, she offered Hart a cup of coffee if he would fix a bad burner on her stove. She figured he could handle the job since he is a retired Sears service technician.

In preparation for the wedding, people have been donating returnable containers for the couple's honeymoon fund. They plan to fly to California and drive back to Maine for their honeymoon, visiting family and friends along the way.

Graham expects to wear a conservative dress for the wedding, and he will wear a tuxedo, but they're also looking for ways to incorporate recycled items into their wedding outfits.

Hart's four grown children and his grandchildren will participate in the wedding, but it's taking some time for everybody to get used to the idea. Hart and Graham were both previously married.

"I guess I have traditional ideas when it comes to getting married," said Dave's daugher-in-law, Rosey Hart. "But people get married at Wal-Mart, ice cream shops or the movies, so hey..."

Hart and Graham have yet to set a date. But that's not stopping transfer station regulars on making suggestions on how to make the perfect dump wedding.

"Everybody we tell has put in their two cents worth of ideas," he said. "We're trying to pick through them."

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