Champions Center Arena,
Westcott House,
Mother Stewart’s Brewing; if you’ve been to any of these important Springfield locales you have experienced the handiwork of Triec Electrical Services. The thing about electrical work, however, is that when it’s done well, no one is likely to notice it at all.
Over four decades, Triec Electrical Services has had a profound impact on the commerce, culture, and community of Springfield, Ohio. Beyond literally lighting the way forward for Springfield businesses, the personalities which came together to form this company have touched lives in myriad other ways too.
You might be a local shop owner impressed by the new hire who went above and beyond to see that the restrooms were tidy, the shelves were orderly, or that the door was held open for the mother with too much to carry.
Such are the sorts of small things that lend to a community’s identity, add to its charm, and make it complete. Afterall, commerce without personality, isn’t community. It’s just business.
The story of Triec begins well before1984 but that is when it officially became a company under that name.
The Yeazell family had a trade and construction background with their grandfather being a general contractor, and having a garage located on the family farm property. After WWII, in 1952 Richard M. Yeazell and his brother Elmer Inson started a small electrical service. Richard and Elmer began wiring up the building their grandfather built. After roughly two years of being in the business, Elmer stepped out leaving Richard Yeazell to continue the business.
In 1962, at the age of 12, Scott Yeazell, began to go work with his father during summer break from school. The workforce of Fidelity Electric was Richard Yeazell, his son R. Scott Yeazell, and occasionally some temporary help contracted from local placement or staffing services.
Scott worked 10 years of summers assisting his father. It was in 1972, during his senior year before graduating from Wabash college, he had to decide: go work for a large corporation or join the family business.
With about two and a half years' experience, he decided to join his father. In 1975 Richard M. Yeazell passed away.
Scott hired an estimator to bid bigger jobs. From 1976 -1979 he did a lot of low bid work and lost a great deal of money. From 1979 – 1980 Fidelity Electric endured financial hardship, however due to a loyal relationship with one of his suppliers at Allphase Electrical Supply, Scott was able to keep running Fidelity electric. His wife worked to support the family for that year. By 1980 he was able to bring in half his salary; by 1981 his debt was caught up and Fidelity was profitable.
Terry Heaton (1951-1983) was a WWII Navy electrician and headed up Springfield’s Heaton Electric. The company provided commercial, residential, and industrial electrical services. Terry's son Dan Heaton, worked with his father until he retired in 1983. Upon his father’s retirement, Dan was left without a space to work and run the business.
In 1981, Dennis Jones purchased B & C Electric from Buss Berry. The business was once run out of a modified chicken coop until it was sanctioned by the city and required to move to a new location.
Although Mr. Yeazell, Mr. Heaton, and Mr. Jones had made acquaintances at local supply houses, they became friends while attending meetings at the Clark Co Electrical association. Sharing ideas, contacts, making jokes and discussing the peaks and pitfalls of being a business owner in the electrical trade.
In the early 1980’s, due to an economic recession, Fidelity offered to rent office space to Heaton Electric as well as to B & C Electric. This was financially beneficial to the three companies.
All three businesses were now residing out of the Fidelity Electric Collier Road location with one operating telephone system. Line 1 was answered as Fidelity Electric, Line 2 was answered as B & C Electric, and finally, Line 3 was answered as Heaton Electric.
Fidelity, B & C, and Heaton shared employees and helped each other on jobs. It was then they began to realize they were stronger together.
In 1983 the times were getting tougher, and the concept of joining the three companies together, and creating a larger, full-service electrical contracting company was on the forefront of their minds. As Scott Yeazell and Dan Heaton have both said, "We were better together, because each one was strong in different ways.”
Scott Yeazell recalls, “Dennis Jones could sell more than he could get done, I could get more done than I could sell, and Dan, well Dan was our electrical Guru and problem solver.”
Dan Heaton remembers, “there really was no interference, we all complimented each other.”
They had the three essential ingredients to grow a small business and realized, “This will work,” and agreed that it would be best for their three respective entities to merge into one.
So in 1984 TRIEC ELELCTRICAL SERVICES became Springfield’s newest electrical contractor. Three+ E=electrical + C=contractors = Triec Electrical Services.
Articles telling the Triec story according to those directly involved will appear at Hubspringfield.com every other week for the duration of this series.