Snider passes the torch

A longtime Hartley business has changed hands, but you won't see any new faces under the hood.

Robert Young purchased Snider Auto Care Center from founder and owner Kevin Snider this month. The move was in the works for a while, but took a little extra wrenching to reach the finish line.

Young, who has worked at the shop under Snider for the past 17 years, was relieved to have the paperwork behind him and move forward as the shop's new owner.

"I've always wanted to own my own business," he said. "It's definitely something I've wanted to do, but you just never know if the opportunity is right."

Young got his start across the road at Stan's Service in 1992, where he worked for nine years before taking a job at Sheldon. He returned to Hartley in 2006 and has been with Snider ever since.

The business has dropped "Center" from its name and will now operate as Sniders Auto Care, Inc.

"You've gotta make some changes no matter what, but I don't want to take the Snider name out of this town because it's been here forever," Young said.

It certainly may seem that way. Snider's father, Arlo, owned and operated a service station on the highway in Hartley from 1945 until his retirement in the early 1980s. It's where Snider got his start in the repair business and remained ever since.

"If you ever see Snider Brothers stuff from way back when he was with his brother, it says Phone 8," Snider noted. "That's how far back that stuff goes."

Arlo's shop was located where Stan's Service is today. Once Snider purchased the business from his father, he eventually sold out to Stan Jacobs and moved to Arizona for five years. Upon returning to Hartley, he worked for the Chevrolet dealership in town and bought the building when the franchise closed in 1991.

Snider greatly enjoyed operating his service shop for the past 32 years and especially enjoyed building relationships with his customers.

"I just never looked back," he said about the decision to open the shop in 1991. "I can't complain. Everything has its ups and downs, but would I do anything different? No."

Snider is quick to admit that he doesn't know what retirement feels like yet – he doesn't consider himself retired.

"I'm just playing Arlo. I'm not even on the payroll," he said. "That way I feel like I'm not costing them any money, but if they need somebody to run here, do this, fix a tire or do whatever, I got no problems doing it."

Still, the business' sale has been a change for Snider, even though he shows up every day.

"I'd be lying to you if I said there wasn't some mixed emotions," he said. "But I still get to see everyone every day. Hartley's a great town."

Young's son, Devin, will continue at the shop fulltime following the ownership change. He's worked there in various capacities since he was a teenager and joined the crew as a full-time mechanic in late 2015 after graduating from Iowa Lakes Community College.

"We see things on the same spectrum 90 percent of the time, I would say," Devin said of the father/son work dynamic. "We've never had any issues with that."

Young isn't planning any drastic changes at the business. Hours will be tweaked and the doors will be closed on Saturdays now, but customers won't notice much else.

"We plan to just keep going to work," he said. "I think it's easier to take over something like this when you've already got an established customer base. But like with anything else, you want to grow and get stuff from outside of the area."

Young looked forward to continuing the legacy of great service local customers have grown to appreciate during the past three decades.

"I'm just excited to keep working with the community," he said. "My biggest thing was keeping the doors open in a small town. You lose any kind of business in a small town and it really hurts."

Snider felt he was leaving the business in good hands.

"They know what to do," he said. "They don't need to be told; neither one of them. They're gonna be just fine."