Georgia Selfridge and Joe Gartrell demonstrate how to drain fluids from a truck at the Wrangell Cooperative Association's first Fix-It Clinic on Monday, Aug. 28. The pair is part of the newly formed volunteer group, the "Differentials," which is offering to help residents prepare junked vehicles for removal off the island.
A newly formed group of automotive afficionados called the "Differentials" are volunteering to help the community rid itself of junked vehicles.
So far, the Differentials boast two sets of two-person teams that to remove tires and drain fluids from cars and trucks so that they can be shipped off the island by scrap metal recycler Channel Construction. As of Thursday, Aug. 24, the group had prepared two cars and a bus for transport.
Two more car-draining duos are slated to join the group soon, for a total of eight volunteers.
The group is named after a car part that allows wheels to turn at different speeds.
Georgia Selfridge, whose experience working with cars dates back to her youth in Meyers Chuck, got the idea for the group at a borough assembly work session on code enforcement, where municipal officials discussed tactics to dispose of the island's many derelict vehicles.
"They were talking about how one of the biggest obstacles to getting the cars taken care of ... (is) you have to drain the fluids out of the cars," she said. "A lot of people just don't do it right."
As a handywoman with a love for volunteering, Selfridge saw the borough's push to clean up cars as an opportunity to give back. She rallied her partner, Joe Gartrell, and her friends Cathy Carlson and Gary Sutlovich, and offered the group's services in preparing vehicles for removal.
Carlson grew up seining with her family, and the engines on the boats she worked on are "basically the same engine as a car," she said. She agreed to join the group at Selfridge's request. "I love to stay busy, so I said 'yeah,'" she recalled.
She made her debut with the Differentials at the Wrangell Cooperative Association's Fix-It Clinic on Monday, Aug. 28. "I think it's a good volunteer thing," she said. She seeks out volunteer opportunities because she enjoys "giving back to the community, helping the community out. That's why we started the group."
The organization's services are geared toward people who have the desire to help clean up their yards, but lack the money or expertise. "We're really just out to help the person who is really kind of beside themselves, doesn't know where to start," said Selfridge. "Someone who is maybe 80 or is just not used to the mechanics ... We're certainly not here to judge or wave a finger. ... We're in town, we have the time, we're not scared of it."
Working on vehicles can be intimidating - and even dangerous - without the proper tools and training, she explained. Poorly jacked cars can crush people and nobody wants a mouthful of poisonous chemicals from a siphoning job gone wrong. Plus, removing tires and siphoning off fluids requires a slew of specialized tools that the Differentials bring with them to the job, saving community members the trouble - and money - that it would take to find and use their own floor jack, drill motor transfer pump or socket wrench set.
Borough officials have quoted that it costs $200 for an in-town professional to drain a car's fluids, but doing it on your own can be nearly as expensive if you don't already have the proper equipment. "By the time you're in 70 bucks for a tool, you might as well pay the $200 to have someone do it for you," said Selfridge. The Differentials' services, on the other hand, are free.
Preparing a car for disposal takes one of the group's two-person teams about an hour and a half.
To contact the Differentials, call Selfridge at 206-660-8463.
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