Under the business slogan “We’ve Got Your Six,” Smiths have opened Alpha Septic Sanitation for the Alexander City area.
Owner, Lucas Smith, is a former Horseshoe Bend High School graduate. After military service and working in the Birmingham area, he moved back to Alexander City with his wife Elizabeth to start a family.
Lucas previously worked at A&M Plumbing. However, after the company closed in late June, some employees bought parts of the company to start their own.
Lucas said that’s how Alpha Septic was born. Alpha Septic offers repairs and maintenance with septic systems.
“It was actually a great blessing and he [the former owner of A&M] guided us through the whole process… He’s been a really big help in helping us grow,” said Elizabeth. “To be honest, it kind of fell into our laps [and] we jumped on it.”
Lucas explained that the decision to own a business was also a good choice for them as a family. He said he used to be away from home most of the day and his wife looked after their three daughters.
“[Now] there’s more time to do things with them,” Lucas said. “I have to be off for Veteran’s Day and things like that to take them for a walk around the cemetery and put flags on the veterans’ headstones.”
Elizabeth said that being part of the community as a family and as a company is an important part of who they are. For example, last Thanksgiving, they volunteered at the Alexander City Community Thanksgiving dinner.
“We try to serve the community [and] We try to keep things affordable,” she said. “We understand that the economy is changing and things are expensive.”
Lucas explained that having people keep up the maintenance of sewage treatment plants can be cost-effective. When systems go unnoticed for years, it gets expensive. He said a common example is people not realizing they need to clean their filter about every year.
“Once this filter gets clogged, it won’t let any more water through – to exit the field lines. Then it backs up in the house and they’re like, ‘Oh god, my system is gone and it’s brand new and something’s done wrong.’ And it’s not — they just have to wait it out,” he said.
Alpha Septic rates vary depending on what work needs to be done on the system and what equipment may be required. Lucas said that unlike other companies, they don’t charge a service fee to come out and look at the system.
He explained that they must first assess the problem in order to then provide an estimate of repair or maintenance costs. Depending on when the system was installed, they sometimes need to rent digging equipment. Meanwhile, they can dig a foot deep with a shovel and access it.
Alpha Septic offers veteran discounts, and Elizabeth said they also try to offer seasonal discounts like their New Year’s discount, which runs through the end of January.
“Like I said, we’re family. We have bills. We have kids and we understand that,” she said. “Feel like working with a small company again. There are bigger septic companies nearby but then you just feel like a different number – we want everyone to feel like family.”
Alpha Septic Sanitation had the official ribbon cutting ceremony on November 21st at the Lake Martin Innovation Center.
Correction: Previous versions of this article stated that Lucas Smith graduated from Benjamin Russell High School. Lucas Smith graduated from Horseshoe Bend High School and the article has been corrected to reflect this. The Outlook takes this error into account.
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