C & S Outdoor Power Equipment

HUNTINGDON — C & S Outdoor Power Equipment, 16267 Highway 22 N, has provided equipment, accessories, service and repairs for everything lawn and garden for 71 years.

Founded in 1953 as The Fix-It Shop (later Colvett Fix-It Shop) by the late Onnie Lee Colvett on Colvett Road, about six miles west of Huntingdon, the business was handed down to his son, Kelly Colvett (the current owner), in the 80s. Kelly has worked at the shop from around age eleven, setting up mowers.

The operation moved to its current location on Highway 22 in 1997 and became C & S Outdoor Power Equipment in 2001. Onnie Lee remained active in the business into the early 2000s.

A third generation of Colvett, Kelly’s youngest son Jacob, now works for C & S as a mechanic. Kelly’s sister, Andrea Biggart, is the office manager.

The owner told The Banner the three-generation business has third-generation customers, a sign of earned loyalty over the years. “You’re not going to have a good business without good customers,” he said. “We’re not the biggest, but we’re consistent. We’ve always tried to sell quality equipment. It’s not an accident. We do our research. We’ve got machines out in the field that I sold 25, 30 years ago still running.”

And Colvett and his staff have adjusted and learned as technology has advanced and equipment offerings have changed to ensure they remain a full-service shop. “We’re big on that. We take care of everything right here. We may not know every answer right then, but we know how to figure it out.”

C & S is an authorized dealer for Grasshopper, RedMax, Worldlawn, Makita and Husqvarna Equipment. They sell, repair and service mowers, weedeaters, chainsaws, blowers and other residential and commercial lawn and garden equipment.

Colvett is pleased that he has many customers who are military members or veterans. “All those guys, what they gave up, none of us would be where we are today without the men and women who served. That’s probably the biggest blessing, the broad range of people I’ve been around and gotten to know. I’ve been able to listen to them, do business with them and just know them.”

Colvett also expressed his pride in the business’s service in the aftermath of significant weather events over the years. He mentioned the tornado in 1971, the freeze in 1994, the hailstorm in 1997 and straightline winds in 2002. “All of those people, some of them were in a bad way. We were there, all those times,” he said. “The biggest thing with all of those was keeping chainsaws running. Some people had trees through their houses, some had no electricity for as long as four weeks. Some people literally had to cut their way out to go get food.”

C & S Outdoor is open Tuesday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon.