Business notebook: Two companies in close proximity mark 40 years
Bill and Sandy Mesler in 1978
Ashley Shiwarski
Victoria Livingston
Brian and Heather Matthews are co-owners of Progressive Mobility.
Two businesses that launched two miles and one month apart are celebrating the Big Four-Oh.
Quality Quick Printing and Progressive Mobility and Medical Inc. opened at about this time of year in 1978 and, 40 years later, are still going full gear.
Located initially at the intersection of Main and Chestnut streets in Washington, Quality Quick has been operating on North College Street for a number of years. Over time, co-owners Bill and Sandy Mesler expanded their business to four shops, but eventually shuttered ones in Charleroi and Wheeling, W.Va. They still have a second location in Canonsburg.
“After 40 years of anything, you don’t know how you got there. It seems like we started 10 years ago,” Bill said. “I’m certainly proud we operated it for 40 years.”
He bought the printing business with money he got from selling 13 shares of stock, then renamed it. Bill, 74, goes into the shop on occasion to do paperwork and check up on things. Sandy, 69, spends much of her time running SKM Dance Studio on North Main in the city. Traci Opel is the operations manager.
Progressive Mobility, on Cameron Road in South Strabane Township, launched about a month later in March 1978. That company also started in a different location in the same municipality, in the nearby complex anchored by the Subway restaurant on Route 19.
Spouses Heather and Brian Matthews own the company started by her parents, Bob and Joy Kerr. Progressive sells medical and mobility- and power-mobility-related equipment, including walkers, canes, lift chairs and bath benches. Progressive also does home remodeling to assist with accessibility.
The Residence at Logan, a 130-unit senior living community in Bethel Park, has named Gregory Gramm as its new executive director. He is a Bethel Park native, Robert Morris University graduate in marketing and brings 20 years of professional experience in the senior living industry to the community. Most recently, Gramm held several leadership positions with Sunrise Senior Living, including serving as executive director for the McCandless and Upper St. Clair facilities.
Ashley Shiwarski of Canonsburg recently received the Gold Stevie Award for being top sales representative. Shiwarski works for Utility Service Partners, a company of HomeServe USA, provider of home emergency repair service plans. She has been an ambassador for the National League of Cities’ Service Line Warranty program, working to ensure homeowners won’t have to pay high, unexpected bills for home repairs. HomeServe won 17 top awards at the event held Feb. 27 in Norwalk, Conn.
Attorney Britt Freund has joined the Southpointe office of Steptoe & Johnson in the Energy & Natural Resources Department. His work will focus on financial transactions for energy companies, private equity firms and financial institutions.
Judi Agostinelli, sales associate with Century 21 Frontier Realty, has received the company’s annual President’s Producer Award, which goes to those who earn Century 21’s Centurion and Quality Service Pinnacle awards in the same calendar year.
Andrew Baur of Waynesburg has been promoted to project manager of safety grating and Victoria Livingston of Bethel Park has become senior technical sales engineer at the Pittsburgh headquarters of A. Stucki Co., manufacturer and supplier of railroad industry components.