Startin's Repair celebrates 50 years

The Startins were honored as the grand marshals in last year's Farmer's Festival parade in LaCrosse for their 50 years in business, which they marked in December with a taco bar and cake. Pictured here are two-year-old Hudson on Eric Startin's lap with Tom Hennigar next to him driving the wagon. In the back, Buggy Startin is standing, and Nancy, Chelsey and Lois Startin are sitting.

One of the longest standing businesses in LaCrosse celebrated 50 years of operation in December, marking the day with a taco bar and cake.

Startin's Repair got its start in LaCrosse in April 1965 when Gayle Startin was given a startup loan from some area farmers.

“They gave him a loan,” said Lois Startin, Gayle's daughter-in-law. “Instead of taking payment for the loans, the farmers recovered their investment in parts and repairs.”

The 50-year anniversary celebration was marked in December because “we had to wait until a slower time-frame in order to celebrate,” Lois noted.

Lois said that her father-in-law went into business after some “farmers got together and asked him to go into business for himself.”

“The farmers knew that Gayle was a talented mechanic,” she said. “He was so talented; he was a gifted mechanic.”

Gayle worked for an implement dealership which went bankrupt prior to going into business himself with his wife, Nancy, who worked as the business' bookkeeper.

Lois and Eric Startin purchased the business in 1997.

Gayle Startin died on the Fourth of July last year, and Alex McGregor shared in a eulogy at his funeral about Gayle's business start-up, which Lois shared with the Gazette.

“When the implement dealership closed, Gayle remembered that 'neither of us had had a paycheck for so long that neither of us knew what money was,'” McGregor said. “But, with friends helping, he started Startin's Repair in LaCrosse in 1965.”

“Buster Andrus provided a hoist, a crane, and loaned him an air compressor. 'Everybody pitched in and helped me get off the ground,' Gayle recalled. 'Four or five farmers helped. One gave me $1,000 to get going with and then just traded it out. That was a lot of money in '65,'” McGregor said.

Quoting the late Steve Jobs, McGregor said, “'The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle.' It was a lot of hard work, but Gayle had found his calling, work he loved, and his business put down deep roots.”

The business, as noted in McGregor's eulogy, started in the Hattimer building in LaCrosse, which Lois said Gayle rented down the street from the current location of Startin's Repair.

The current building was rebuilt by Gayle and his sons, Eric and Chad, along with volunteer help. They spent Sundays working on the building and Nancy brought lunch for the crew working. They opened the doors of the new rebuilt building in 1978.

Eric said that over the years, the business expanded from a “general repair shop” to include added services such as irrigation parts and service, domestic pumps service, air conditioning parts and services, automotive parts, plumbing, hardware and lumber inventory sales and more.

“He started out real slow in the well business, and it has just grown,” Lois added.

The business has also expanded into hardware sales, which Lois said “expanded a lot.”

The business, over the past 50 years, has been a family-oriented business from the beginning, Lois said.

“Eric and Chad worked here as they were growing up,” Lois said .

Eric began working full-time at the shop in 1988. Lois started helping her in-laws by doing book work at home for them starting in 1987.

At one point, three generations of Startins were working in the shop.

“Our sons worked here when they were in high school,” Lois said, noting that Gayle continued to work at the shop after she and Eric purchased it until his retirement in 2011. “Buggy came to work here full-time in 2007.”

Buggy is Eric and Lois' youngest son. Their oldest son, Brandon, works for Empire Airlines, a Fed-EX feeder, as a captain and check airman and lives with his wife, Jill, in Spokane. Lois said that when Eric took over the business in 1997, Brandon was six and Buggy was two, so the business was practically a second home for their children.

“Whether they wanted it to be or not,” she said.

Buggy's wife, Chelsey, also now works as a bookkeeper, and the couple's two-year-old daughter, Hudson, spends her days at the shop, too.

“That's how our kids started out,” Lois said. “That's how they grew up, too.”

Lois noted that Hudson likes to ride her bicycle through the hallways at the shop and also enjoys talking with the customers.

Lois said that in addition to the Startins in the shop, there are also two more employees. Dave Enzweiler, who has been with the business since September, 1996, and Trisha Bennett, who joined the team last year.

Lois said one of the things that helps to keep the business a success is the traveling involved.

“Eric and Buggy are the mechanics, but they also do all the well work and travel all over,” she said. “The area in which we service has grown, mileage-wise.”

Lois said traveling has included places as far north as Edwall, west to Connell, east to Palouse and south to Pomeroy. Buggy added “actually there is no limit to where we will travel.”

“It's a huge radius,” she said, noting that the travel destination changes by the day.

She added that the traveling and the diversity of the company are part of its success.

“You have to diversify in this world to compete against the big box stores,” she said.

Lois also noted that there really is not a typical day at the shop.

“It is ever changing,” she said. “You can plan all you want, but you may not get to do what you planned that day.”

Lois said one of her favorite parts of the business is the people who she gets to interact with each day.

“I think the customers who come in are my favorite,” she said. “I get attached to a lot of people.”

Lois also said the business has helped them to establish ties in the community.

“We have stayed pretty connected,” she said. “We volunteer, too.”

Eric and Buggy are both volunteer firefighters, and Eric is also a Whitman County Fire District #8 commissioner. Chelsey serves on the marketing board for LaCrosse Community Pride and Lois serves on the LCP board and LaCrosse Scholarship Foundation board.

They all volunteer with the LaCrosse Farmer's Festival in June.

Startin's Repair is open six days a week, just as it was 50 years ago, when Gayle and Nancy started it. They are open seven days a week during harvest.

At the 50-year anniversary celebration in December, more than 250 people came through, though the exact number is not known.

“We didn't really keep track,” Lois said. “It was fun.”