FARMINGTON — At Madore’s Redemption Center, located behind Madore’s Market on the corner of Route 43 and the Town Farm Road, two employees bring creativity and knowledge to an often messy job.

David Fronk of Farmington and Andrew Foss of Chesterville have been behind the counter for years.

“They’re amazing,” Steve Brady of Farmington said while waiting for his returnables to be tallied. “Andie is definitely creative. What he’s made from cans is pretty cool.”

Fronk began working parttime at the center when it opened about 25 years ago.

“I started when Randy and Joanne Givens built the place, filling in when my wife wasn’t able to work,” he said. “Jim Kidder, who lived on Voter Hill and whose wife was a school teacher, bought it about nine years after I started working here. Current owners Kevin and Cindy Madore have had it several years.”

Foss has found an outlet for his creative side at Madore’s Redemption Center.

Foss purchases returned cans and uses them, with some non-returnable stuff, to make metal sculptures. A large dragon made from Mountain Dew cans and a dogsled team are on display at the Center. Both earned blue ribbons at Farmington Fair.

“Everything I’ve made has been made from aluminum cans,” he said. “I’ve made a tractor trailer truck, a skidder, escavator. I’m working on flower arrangements. Roses, carnations, daisies. I’m now working on sunflowers.

“I usually end up giving them away.”

Ideas just pop up for Foss.

“I say I’m going to do this and I just do it,” he said. “Mainly it’s just a hobby. I like doing it. I’ve always had a thing for art.”

Foss took painting, clay and other art classes in high school.

“It’s difficult to become a true artist in this day and age,” he said. “I do it for fun. When you turn something you love into a business, it becomes stressful. So I do it mainly for the enjoyment of it.”

Time spent completing a sculpture varies. Foss clocked the time spent on one, which took exactly 24 hours.

“I usually work over a period of months,” he said. “The dragon took months. Figuring out how to cut and shape the metal so it will resemble something lifelike takes time.

“I do all my own patterns, tampering or shaping of the metal, figure out how to do it. I don’t go online.”

Foss said he’s an average, normal person trying to make a living. He has done some crazy things out of other recyclables.

“When I look at garbage, I look at the potential of what it can be,” he said. “I can come up with some pretty crazy ideas. I say there is art in everything you look at.

“I have the worst material to work with. Aluminum is very stubborn.”

When the Center opened, there were just three products that could be returned, Fronk said.

“Now there are over 500 returnables and nothing goes in the same place,” Foss added.

When asked, Fronk said he had never come across anything strange or unusual.

“When Andrew’s here, he’s come across a lot of stuff. Missing keys,” Fronk said.

“You name it, I’ve seen it. Both living and dead,” Foss said. “The owners had been looking for their keys for about two weeks.”

One story shared was about the time a lady brought six giant bags in a two-door, four passenger car.

“It was like a clown show out there. I asked her if there was any room for her and she said ‘It was a tight squeeze!’,” Fronk said.

Madore’s Redemption Center has had many big bottle drives. It helps local businesses out by letting them drop bottles off and come back another time to save waiting.

“We know they’re busy just like the rest of us,” Foss said. “A lot of redemptions have closed due to COVID-19. We’ve been lucky to be open.”

Difficulties can arise when people bring in things purchased in other states.

“The rule is, if it’s bought in that state it has to be returned in that state,” Foss said. “New Hampshire doesn’t have a bottle return. A lot of people buy things cheaper in New Hampshire. We end up with a lot of garbage.”

“In winter, when the ski resorts are open, a lot of people stay in motels,” Fronk said. “They don’t want to take their bottles and cans home, they think it’s a tip.”

There are a lot of rules and regulations, Foss said.

“How is the public supposed to know all this if they don’t advertise about it,” he asked. “It’s our job to know it. People get a little upset until you explain it to them. It’s not us, this is a government-run system.”

“There are 56 pages worth of stuff on what can be taken,” Fronk said. “We both pretty much have to know it all.”

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