Employee Spotlight: D6 Arco TTO Tony Rojas
If you live in or grew up in the Moore/Arco area, you definitely know Tony and Lucy Rojas. If you don’t already, you should — they are the kindest people you could ever meet. Tony has a heart of gold and would give the shirt off his back to help you out. He is always there if you need him. Best of all, he's one of us — a member of the ITD family!
Born and raised in Pocatello with his parents and younger sister, Tony grew up knowing how to work hard and play hard. He began working for D5's Special Crew as an hourly when he was just 19 years old. For the next nine years, through hard times and struggles, Tony was raising a young family. He had gone through a divorce and was raising a handsome son by himself. Shortly after his divorce, he met Lucy Williams, and they were wed in July 1998.
Lucy grew up in Arco and graduated high school in 1980. Shortly after graduating, she followed her family to Alaska when her father took a job to help build the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. She spent the next 16 years there, then moved back to Idaho. Lucy was divorced too, and raising a young family by herself. She found a job working for ITD for a short period of time and met Tony through a mutual friend.
After daily calls to each other for months — Tony worked in Downey and Lucy in Twin Falls — the two finally met in January of 1998 and got married in July of that same year. They just celebrated their 21-year anniversary with their three adult children and a grandson.
Living the dream every day, Tony reflected on some of his numerous stories. One of the many was from just a few years ago, a story of one of his greatest fears...Bigfoot! If anyone knows Tony, they know he is TERRIFIED of Bigfoot and the night. He doesn’t mess around when it gets dark, so as you can imagine having to plow or work in the dark is no easy feat for him. Let alone some of the things he gets himself into.
There is something to be said about admitting your worst fears; Tony has quite the sense of humor about his!
As we were chatting and sitting near his campfire looking out to the Big Lost River that his property butts up a
gainst, I noticed a bundle of trees and a big chunk of steel you call a Trencher. I asked him about the trees and he started talking about this trencher. He proceeds to tell us that the old hand trencher he calls “Beula the Ball Breaker” is how he dug some of the water lines to irrigate the 200+ trees they planted.
When Tony and Lucy moved to their property in Moore 16 years ago, the land was completely bare, with no trees in sight. Over the next 16 years Tony, Lucy and the kids started to plant trees — mostly blue spruce and assorted pines. Each tree and every water line had been hand dug up until three years ago, when he bought Beula.
Beula is a special piece of equipment that very few can operate. She weighs a whopping 400 lbs., is self-propelled and it seems as though Tony has been the only one able to operate it…I’m thinking the only one willing and wanting to. After using it for a while, Tony had about 20 trees left to plant, but began having some health issues.
It wasn’t until this year when some of the ITD crews came out to help him and finished piping the remaining trees that Tony finally was able to finish planting. "They mostly helped in putting in a sprinkler system for me, as I was so weak and sick I could not keep up with my chores. They were awesome and I can’t thank them enough for helping me through this."
Over the last year or two, Tony has been battling severe kidney failure that doctors do not fully understand. Since March of this year, his kidneys had gone from 23% functionality down to 10%. Going to the emergency room after a recent attack this summer, he was placed on dialysis immediately and has been on it ever since. Being sick, battling failing kidneys and having to do dialysis multiple times each week, Tony was placed on medical leave from ITD this last March and will officially retire sometime this fall.
He is now on the national list for a kidney transplant.
Even while battling major health issues, Tony has an amazing sense of humor and outlook on life. He continues to talk about some of his many projects and creations. One of the many things Tony enjoys doing in his spare time is building and fabricating “odd” things that no one else has. A perfect example of this is a golf cart he completely rebuilt calling it his “Moon Buggy" (pictured below).
Listen to Tony’s Moon Buggy story here as he walks through how the heck he came up with this idea!
His Moon Buggy is only one of the many pieces of weird stuff he has fabricated throughout his career, and continues to build. Even though he is used to building odd contraptions, Tony recently built an amazing steel bench in memory of Lucy’s parents, who passed in 2012 & 2016. Her parents were avid backpackers, so when they passed, Tony and Lucy placed a wonderful bench for all to enjoy in memory of her family. The bench is located at the trailhead of Iron Bog Lake near Mackay…if you’re nearby, take a hike and check out the "memory" bench.
Tony and Lucy turned their Moore property into a campsite, where they rent to and accommodate campers during the summer months. Tony also has numerous candy (he's known by the kids around town as the Candy Man) and vending machines around Arco, and donates all the proceeds he receives from those machines.
"I do not have a specific charity I donate to," Rojas explained. "I find out who is in need of some help or kindness and I donate that way." He has also been involved with a "Secret Santa" program on a local radio station for years.
There’s one thing about Tony — He will always find something to keep himself busy!
When not going through medical treatments or doing their next project, Tony and Lucy love to enjoy the peace and quiet. They love camping and the outdoors, and love any quality time they can spend with their family and new grandson. So if you’re ever in the area and have some free time, stop in and see if Tony will take you for a spin in the infamous “Moon Buggy” – he may even let you drive!
Published 09-20-19