C.A. Hess Garage, a staple in the Newport community, will be under new management beginning April 1. The garage at 45 N. Third St. has been owned and operated by Crist Hess since it opened on March 24, 1984. The business is being leased to Bill and Samantha Wentz with the option to purchase and will be renamed Newport Auto Repair.
“I’ve been around here a good bit,” Hess commented. “I have a lot of great customers, a lot of older customers and a lot of newer customers. Half of them I know them to see them, but I can’t remember all their names. The community’s been really good to me for a long time. They’ve helped me get to where I’m at, and hopefully they’ll stay with the new owners. Their intention is to run it the same way I’ve been doing it; there’s nothing much to change.”
Hess noted that cars have changed quite a bit during his time at the shop, and that the technology in newer cars is getting ahead of him.
“Forty years is enough. Cars have changed a lot in the last 40 years, so technology is getting ahead of me. Tires are getting heavier and bigger. The technology that they are using these days with the computerized stuff, it is not what I started out knowing how to do. I am a wrench-and-ratchet type guy. If it’s got nuts and bolts, I can fix it, but when it comes to trying to diagnose check engine lights it’s just completely changed. It’s a whole new game.”
Hess will be returning to his farm outside of Newport.
“My wife will probably get sick of me because we work together. She has horses, so I need to make hay and that kind of stuff.
STOP SIGN — After 40 years in the garage business in Newport, Christ Hess is calling it a career. (Paul E. Wyatt photo)Perry County Times
“I’ll be around. I’m just not going to be standing on concrete and I’ll give my back a bit of rest. I’ll drive around in circles for a while on a tractor instead of sitting in here listening to the phone ring and trying to deal with all kinds of problems.”
The Wentzes, who live in Newport, expressed that they plan to keep operations running in much the same way as in the past 40 years.
“We’re going to be keeping everything the same, except we’ll have more hours,” Sam Wentz, who has been a mechanic for all his life and working in shops the past 20 years, said. “We’ll be open Monday through Friday, 8 to 5, and then Saturdays by appointment all day. All the pricing will be the same we’ll just keep going with what Crist has been doing.”
The garage also will begin servicing small engines, such as on tractors, lawn equipment and ATVs.
“We’re looking forward to serving everyone in Newport, and to new friendships and clients,” Wentz said.
Hess extended his appreciation to the Newport community for its support and business over the past four decades.
“I’ve got a great rapport with a lot of the customers I’ve had, and the parts people that I dealt with. It’s been a good run. I’m just trying to keep my body going long enough that I can do something else besides sit around in a chair and watch the world go by.”