C & J Service has been owned by Milo Haney for 40 years
CARIBOU, Maine — C & J Service, a business that offers gasoline, auto repair, towing, and light shopping, is up against an obstacle that may result in the closure of the business and the loss of five jobs. Milo Haney, who has owned the business for 40 years, is applying for a grant to cover the high cost of replacing gas tanks and pumps.
“It cost me $27,500 to replace the pumps 28 years ago,” said Haney, “but now the cost for the job is in excess of $150,000. To help, I’m applying for a Community Development Block Grant, which the state will pay for. The purpose of the grant is to help retain jobs. Without it, we’ll be forced to consider closing.”
Haney built his business from the ground up, and started with very little.
“When I started that business it was the 27th of January, and I had to take the plywood off the windows because the building was all boarded up. I started there with $58 dollars in my pocket, and built it up. I bought small loads of gas and as I sold it, I kept building the inventory back up. That’s how I did it.”
Financial obstacles have hit many businesses in the area, and Haney has dealt with similar hurdles in the past.
“For my initial finances,” said Haney, “I estimated that I needed to come up with $2,000 to get started. The banks wouldn’t help me so I went to to the Small Business Administration and they told me to get a refusal letter from two large banks. When I went back to the banks that had turned me down, and when they found out I was going through the SBA, they actually gave me more money than I asked for.
“Then, about 90 days into the business, I had to get more equipment. They thought I was coming in to ask for more money, but I’d been doing well. So when they looked at my finance statement and saw that I had been depositing close to a hundred thousand through the bank, they thought it was wrong. I assured him that the statement was from his bank, and he then insisted that he wanted to give me the money. In the end, I built my own wrecker, and that homemade wrecker is still in use by C & J Service today,” Haney said.
C & J Service, located on 996 Access Highway in Caribou, is close to the former Loring Air Force Base. Although the closure of the military base has negatively impacted surrounding business, the auto shop has been resilient through the years.
“Being out there, quite a way from the community, it is more difficult to do the business they do in town,” said Haney, “but we’ve been able to keep going. I’m a firm believer that if you treat people right they’ll travel to see you. That has been our ethic for 40 years. When the base closed, people said that we’d probably end up closing, but it never happened. We’ve always had great clientele.”
