Auto repair business gears up for expansion

An automotive repair business in downtown Clearwater is revving up for an expansion.

Main Street Repair is in the early phases of constructing an addition on its north side that will double the size of its location.

“What we’ve got going on right now, it works, but it’s not very efficient,” said Andrew Blecher, who owns and operates the business.

The 27-year-old was referring to Main Street Repair’s current 25-by-100-foot building, which is mostly a shop area.

“Sometimes, I get something on the hoist and it gets tied up for some parts and then I can get something else in,” Andrew said.

“Well, I’ve either got to do it on the ground or it’s going to have to wait or I’ve got to push that project out,” he said.

Tony Blecher, Andrew’s 50-year-old father, noted expanding the business’ shop area has become necessary.

“It’s not probably ideal because it’s so narrow and long,” said Tony, a longtime auto mechanic who often helps out his son at Main Street Repair.

The business’ expansion will be helpful because it will add more shop space, including a second vehicle hoist, as well as internet access and landline phones.

The front portion of the addition will feature a parts room where oil filters, tires and other automotive supplies will be sold.

Concrete was poured Tuesday, Sept. 29, for the foundation of the new building.

Andrew and Tony are hopeful the frame for the addition will be erected and enclosed by the end of the year.

“It might take all winter to get the inside finished,” Andrew said. “We’ll do all that ourselves.”

Main Street Repair’s expansion project likely will not be completed until the spring of next year.

“That’ll be nice,” Andrew said. “It’ll be really interesting to see what it looks like when it is all enclosed.”

The addition will be a tin building with a wooden frame, unlike the business’ existing structure, which is made of red bricks and concrete blocks and has tin walls on the inside.

Tony has been an auto mechanic since 1989 – he works for Precision Repair north of Elgin – and once had his own automotive repair business in Clearwater for about five years.

Andrew grew up around Tony as he worked on cars and other vehicles during his career and in his own garage.

The younger Blecher’s previous job experience includes working as a mechanic at Niewohner Farms’ location west of Elgin.

“You learn about how to fix anything out there,” Andrew said.

He also worked on vehicles’ alignments and suspension systems at Lichtenberg Tire Pros in Neligh.

“I’m not cut out to be a person that sits at a desk all day,” Andrew said.

Being in the automotive repair business certainly runs in the Blecher family.

“You’ve got a vehicle in front of you,” Tony said. “It’s mechanical. There’s a way it comes apart; there’s a way it goes together.”

Tony expressed his pride in seeing how driven Andrew is as a business owner in their Antelope County hometown.

“I just wish I would’ve had the opportunity when I was his age to have something like this,” Tony said. “It’s turned out pretty decent.”

The business’ location used to be home to Clearwater’s grocery store, which had been called Jo’s Market before it permanently closed Jan. 27, 2018.

The Blecher family purchased the property later that year in September and Andrew and Tony turned the site into the business it is now.

The part of the structure they had knocked down – on the spot where the addition is going to be located – they had been using for storage.

Ron and Jeanette Arbogast, the parents of Tony’s wife, Carla, had owned the grocery store location from 1979 to 1984.

Tony noted Andrew, the Arbogasts’ grandson, owns and operates a business on the same site they once did.

“When we took that addition down, there was an O’Neill paper and a Clearwater Record newspaper wrapped up in plastic Saran Wrap,” Tony said. “My father-in-law actually signed it and dated it.

“It fell out of the wall when we tore it down out there,” he said, noting the newspapers were from 1979. “He’s passed away and so has her mother. It was kind of neat just to see his signature.”