Latest / WCHS Network Podcasts / 05/01/2024 Ask the Expert with Larry Dawson

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05/01/2024 Ask the Expert with Larry Dawson · WCHS Network Podcasts

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Unlock your dream property with Meeks Realty Group, where Rich the realtor makes real
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estate dreams a reality, whether it's residential or commercial. We've got Charleston to
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Huntington covered. Your key to exceptional real estate experience is start here Meeks Realty
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Group. Contact us at Meeks dot us. The views and opinions expressed on
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this program do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of five eight, WCCHS,
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its employees or WVRC Media and very plus. Good morning to you.
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You're listening to ask the expert WCHS the Voice of Charleston. I'm Del Cooper.
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Thanks for tuning in. When this Wednesday morning we got through our rain
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day. I think yesterday we had scattered showers throughout the day. Today,
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I think it's going to clear off and beat warm yet again mid eighties.
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So enjoy the day. As we start to approach mid spring and getting into
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summer. And speaking of summer, I think of Larry Dawson's Auto sales a
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lot, the former Larry Dawson's Auto sales a lot when it comes to summertime,
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and Larry Dawson and who's been one vacation? I had one vacation.
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So we had almost a month without Larry here, and so Larry's bike for
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three shows this month. We have five Wednesdays this month. We're going to
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do the first, third and the fifth Wednesday. Yeah, and I'm coming
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right Dale. And I was talking before we went on, and you know,
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we normally chit chat, well what we're gonna talk about, but one
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thing that I try to open the show up with, and I know it's
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a hard habit sometimes saying Larry Dawson's audo says, I'm just Larry Dawson,
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the spokesperson. But Steven's Auto Group has came to Nitro. They've opened up
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Supercenter in my former location and by all appearance and nothing has changed other than
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decided. So you know, if you're familiar with how I operated for thirty
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seven years, come on by. You're gonna find the same staff, you're
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gonna find the inventory, You're going to find everything that you found before.
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And Stevens is also affiliated. They have a Ford Crosser store in Danville,
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which is I called the flagship mothership, but it's where it all started at.
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And they ventured out down to Princeton and bought a mins a Bishi store,
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so they operate Steven's Nsubishi down in Princeton, West Virginia. They also
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have the former King Cole Chevrolet that was at O'khill's operating under Stephen's Chevrolet.
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And they have a supercenter in Beckley and a supercenter in Somersville. And their
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newest edition is a Nitro. And Stephen's Auto is headed up by two owners,
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Richard Stevens and Chase Spartan, both of which I have known, probably
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Richard more than Chase. A new Chase's father and kind of tells my aide.
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But we brought him on here a couple of weeks ago and talked about
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and you'll find that the characteristics or the character of both, you know,
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it's we just don't look the same, but we think to say so.
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I think that if you're down looking in that area in n or the Saint
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Aubans Cross Slane's Putnam County area, please stop by. You're going to find
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the staff. The staff is I'm not there, but I'm close by that
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could come and get me. You have a sales management named of Jody Johnson,
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which is probably one of the nicest individuals I ever met. I mean,
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we just met a few months ago, and Jody is a very very
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nice fella. Sit down and talk to easy Larry Summy, which he and
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I bunk together for I think about seventeen years. Larry is there. You
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have Donnie Dumphy and a bike. Dottie's like it's kind of like a son
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to me. I think Donnie and I was together twenty three four five years.
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He was a youngster when he came in. And Chris Ellis, which
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is also I spent many many years with. He's back your assisting assisting Dottie.
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So really not much has changed. And you know I've said this before.
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I'm right across the fence. I put a little office in a warehouse.
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I had just to have something to do and polish on an old car
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here and there. Yesterday I halt a tractor down to my farm. But
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I'm close by. And then if you feel like you just kind of need
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to break the ice through me and come over, you know I'm just right
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there. I'll walk over to introduce you any of those fells and to Coda
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Lee. I forgot about to Cooda Lee. She's a sales lady there.
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And Ray ellis handles the financing, and as the automobile world has changed,
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its drastically changed. As you hear this a lot, well, you know
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since covid well the automobile world is at any different, it changed. And
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one of the areas that let's say I didn't excel in maybe I was playing
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an old school way is the finance department. We as an individual, as
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a small independent dealer, we did not have the resources that Richard and Chase
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through Steven's Audi Center will be. You know, Brinks, I didn't have
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the availability. Lenders seem like they trend toward new car franchises, and if
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they have affiliates such as Steven's Auto and Nitro, you know that they can
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we use it, spend their paper, or operate the finance department through them,
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and ray Ellis heads it up. But as time has changed, you
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know, there was questions as customers would come in, and I fell short
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of being able to answer a lot of them when we talked about the financing
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and the warranties and the gap in insurance and all the things come with it.
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Yes, we had to extended warranties, but when you're an independent,
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it's a little bit different. Game. Your finance department is very limited because
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the lenders unlike yesterday when we had the Bank of Saint Aubans and Bank across
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the Lanes and all those small banks. You know, they're large national banks
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now. And you did have some local credit unions, yes, that we
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did that, and we and the credit union was the replacement of the lenders
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that left may I always found it odd, and I was with then banks
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and which is now Trust One Valley Bank, but as they grew larger,
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they basically cut independent dealers off. Now you can argue the point why,
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I don't know. It seems like we went through a trend of biggest better.
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It's reverting bike. If you come to a little town in Nitro,
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you'll find that hometown experience, you know. Nitro. Nitro accepted me in
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nineteen eighty five when I went to work for Scott Runyon at a Pontiac buick
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store which is now a church across the street from the dealership, and I
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spent two years there, went across the street, bought the facility which Stevens
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operates under now. But I built a brand in a business there in a
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little town called Nitro. Cross Lanes. You know you can corporate the Institute
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maybe a little bit of dubb Rs Saint Albans, But if you took a
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compass and just drew or and drew a circle around you know that business was
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probably a five I have seven mile diameter of business or maybe I should say
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radius business. And that's who it was servicing. And nothing has really changed
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much. I think that the people in the area. It become a destination
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place. And now it's operated under the Stephens Auto of Nitro, it's still
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destination place. It's still a place for automobile purchases, and it still basically
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has about eighty ninety percent the staff that once did. Once again, I'm
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across the fence, location away, not really full well, not selling cars
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is over occupying some space. But it's an area that is unique because of
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how easy it is to get to know. If you're coming out of Charleston,
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if you're heading east and you're coming down, you can get off that
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Institute exit well, Institute will bring you right into Nitro and what's there Stephens
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Auto of Nitro. You can come across the Dick Henderson Bridge from Saint Albans
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or any other part of that area, turn left and it's right on US
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twenty five. It's the main drag. We call it First Avenue, and
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there it is, it's Stevens Auto. You can be in across Lanes area,
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you can come across the mountain of Golf Mountain and drop down and turn
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right and you're within a mile and a half to two miles, or if
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you're coming out of the west, you get off the Nitro exit. So
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Nitro is uniquely placed along the corridors of I sixty four with multiple outlets.
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You know, you can go off across lanees exit, come across the Golf
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Mountain where you're at. You're a Nitro. You can be in Saint Albans
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and can come across the bridge. So I don't know of another location that
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you can say that you have that multiples of exits. Also on a major
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freeway, which is US twenty five. I've read not too long ago actually
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the the building across the street, which was an irandex real corpse got it
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for least and I was looking loop now, I've just always looked at real
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estate and it's said the transportation or excuse me, the car counts that goes
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by. I was, I mean I was floored. And I can't repeat
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them ount because I don't recall about it was, but I do know it's
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amount of cars that goes by the Randex, which is across the street from
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Steven's Auto. If you had me gas, i'd been way short. There's
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numbers sometimes really can blow you away. But you know, once again,
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if you go to pull out, like yesterday, I was driving a roll
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bike, I had to move some equipment around. Well, you know you
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have to pull out on Route twenty five in a roll bike. You know,
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to get out there, it's not like zipping after in a car.
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You know, you got to kind of look both ways, maybe hit that
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center lane, and at certain times it's it's difficult sometimes to pull out.
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We have a turning lane which makes it easy. Stevens has a very wide
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entrance that you can pull in that that I had before. So it's an
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easy egress and degress. But there's a tremendous amount of traffic and nitro down
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in that area. You can reflect upon history and people will reflect back to
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that. Here's a great example. Nanny Jhes has been a friend of mine
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since seventy eighties or so. He came to Nitro in the early nineties and
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bought the old Pizza inn and and formed Danny's Rib House. People still refer
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to that as Danny'sribhouse, and Danny has been going for quite some time.
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What Manuelle has it, it's a Mexican restaurant. It does phenomenally well.
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I mean you drive by there, his cars parked everywhere. But you know,
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in conversations say, oh, yeah, Danny's nanny'srib House. Well,
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Jeff's Appliances is right decided. Jeff is in the institution of appliances. His
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father starred in Kanas City. My father was a TV and appliance dealer.
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Jeff's father and my parents won a trip to Hawaii in the early seventies,
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So that's how far they go back. Jeff has been in Nitro doing his
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thing for quite some time. Very nice building, very well led up,
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and sits right next to the police station. I swear I think that's where
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we bought all of our appliances in Kennel City when I was a kid.
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The original justice. Yeah, well you in the police station. Which that
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makes it nice down in that area, is that you know you have police
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presence. It's right there. I mean You can walk out in front of
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Stevens and look down to the right and you will see that, you know,
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the police station that was once a bank, that was the old Citizens
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Bank. And as Nitro grew and they needed a larger facility, and down
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there where the city Hall is, it is a little blocked in there that
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they just didn't have the room and they were able to buy that building.
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And also in Nitro, in our area is establishment has been there forever.
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I bowled there when I was a child. Is town and country boiling at
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length? And I kind of us I did kind of I used that when
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people say, no, exactly where you located, I said, you know
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where the bowling alley is? And I said, oh, yeah, I
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bowled there like in nineteen sixty eight. I said, right across the street.
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So you have you have institutions that it has been there for quite some
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time. There are landmarks, and so it's an easy thing for explanation as
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you know how to get there. And Stevens, once again, when they
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came in, I think they recognized that it had been a thirty seven year
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long standing dealership and once you know, we just changed the name from Larry
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Dawson's Audi says to Stevens Auto Nitro and the staff stays the building. I
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mean there really hasn't many changes other than just the name. So Nitro to
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me, if you're out looking, I mean, we can take the automobiles
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out of it. There's a lot of unique entrepreneurs, deals deals down Main
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Avenue is an institution has been there since the sixties. And you know,
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I just can't believe that. I just it'd be hard to reach out and
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ask some way, have you ever ate it? Because that's what we used
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to do. You know, people come in looking for cars, run down
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deals, get yourself tr tea. But Nitro is full of those small entrepreneurs
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that has came in. I think Mayor Dave Casebault and I have become I
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think, pretty good friends. I sit on a little board down there.
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But in the direction he has got Nitro going. It's a wonderful little city.
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If you're not driven through Nitro in the last five, six, seven
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years, you're going to be surprised with what was once standing as an old
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building is now has been raised, it's knocked down, and we have new
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businesses coming in. You know, there was once a long strip of building.
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I think it was formerly a Kroger's back and let's just go way back
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that we bought tore down and there's a I mean, it's a new Taco
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Bell and I understand that Taco Bells might be one of the top in the
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state. I think it's uniquely designed because first of all, you know taco
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bells, they are always a little crowded. You know, they don't take
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up large plots of land, right, Well, this one does. This
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takes up a whole city block. That's the largest entrance exit laid out talking
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about I've ever seen, because once again they seemed like they were just little
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posty stamp stores. Not this one. It's came in. We also have
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another piece of land down there by the Nitrus supermarket that operates. It was
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andres for many years, and I think it's operated under the name of Cooks.
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But it's family owned and that's what we need. There's a there's a
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funeral home in Nitro. Cook's Funeral Homes been there forever and it is family.
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Mars Jewelers. I mean, the list goes on and on and on,
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and Nitro I can't say enough about the let's say the growing of Nitro
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but taking old facilities in either knocking them out or being remodeled. Next door
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to Steven's Autist Center, I bought the old Nitru Shay Naughty had been there
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since so probably forty something. I renovated the building, knocked down about three
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quarters of it, and Saturday is going to be a grand opening of my
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little Sunshine boutique, Mackenzie Reid. She leased it from me. She's got
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two hair salons in there, and I think this is pretty unique infant clothing.
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Oh that's great. I mean, I think it's super well when she
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kind of explained it to me, I didn't grasp it. I walked in
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to Defail yesterday and I was stunned how beautiful it was. She's done a
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first class job as right next door to Steven's Auto. So there's things happening
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right there around that vicinity. And you know, if you haven't, if
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you've not driven by, especially from lock Street down, you're going to see
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editions of new buildings across the across the street from Steven's Auto. Statewide.
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He's Mark Sanders, it's a friend of mine. But Marcus being buying old
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what's called bungalows in Nitro and tearing them down and building new homes. Now
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you think about that new homes. I have last must sold a plot of
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land to Nitrue Fireman, and you know what he's gonna do. He's gonna
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build new residents on it. So we're I'm seeing that and I'm not seeing
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that really so much. In maybe I don't travel to other towns, but
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I live in Winfield and I traveled to Hurrigan all but they're very aggressive,
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and there's some very aggressive builders. I was in Florida with Chuck Boggs.
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Chuck owns a real estate company there and he has developed going toward Institute as
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you come off the Nitry, Saint Ogg's Bridge commercial buildings on the right and
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left, as well as Mark Sanders and he just opened up I think it's
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called Nitro Commons or believe it's what it is. But he has five retail
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outlets brand darn new, and so you go around and look, you can
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see these great, big buildings and malls being built. Because I just went
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to New Sumerna, so I saw a lot of building going down ninety five
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and twenty six and seventy seven. But I did say small ones and not
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sure we have the small ones. The thing that is compelling about that,
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and you explain it so well. When I was in business for myself,
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and one of the things that we did is we sort of had a franchise
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concept. Then we helped people open up businesses and things like that. It
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used to be the old rule of thumb is you would kind of like scope
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out what McDonald's and stuff was, because you know that they did the research
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into traffic in an area and stuff like that. We kind of adapted that
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rule to be forward facing retail operations and nitro fits the bill perfectly with that,
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because what you would see is you would see places that, oh,
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you wouldn't believe all the development that's going on at this business park, and
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look how expensive the rent is here and the traffic count here. All that
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that may be true, and then you get boots on the ground and you
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look around the place and it's all inward facing offices and things, not the
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places that actually do commerce. You know. I mean, it's fine to
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have those businesses there, your community needs them, but it's not forward facing
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retail operations. What you needed to find was little pockets and every community general
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has little pockets of forward facing retail operations that or where it's well known in
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the community or whatever. What Nitra has done is embraced that entire concept as
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a community. And so when you go down like First Avenue and you're looking
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at all those businesses there, there's actually very few business parks, you know,
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there's very few internal facing offices. Almost all of them are retail operations
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of some sort, most of them on the smaller side, family owned or
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something like that. That is a wonderful backbone for a community to have.
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There is a little lumber shop cat a corner to Steven's Autist Center, and
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it's more down by way where the warehouse is. But I think it's been
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there since I've been there. I'm not sure who owns it, but I
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see people going in and out there all the time. I mean, you
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know, and everybody can work on shainsaw, weed eater or lumover they can,
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and it's set on that corner. Well. I come to Nitro in
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eighty five, and I believe it was there in eighty five. Keith Volkswagen
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down the street from me. Keith was there. I was the oldest next
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to the oldest dealer in nitroight there was only two of us, so he's
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going to be the youngest of the oldest. Keith Volkswagen has been there and
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it's amazing. I see people pull in and needing parts because he's the old
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Volkswagen guy and he's been there longer than I was. I started. I
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bought the building in eighty six, open the doors in eighty seven, and
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he was there. And Nitro only has I mean, Keith does his does
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have his dealer license, so you know he's a licensed dealer. But I
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was the only really retail dealer. And now Steven's Auto Nitro is the only
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the in the city, the proper city of Nitro, the borderlines. Now
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Walker operates on the outskirts, but they're outside the city. But if you're
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talking about the city of Nitro, I mean when I went in, Jack
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Fuentis had Capital Dodge beside me, and I had just left Scott running.
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He had a Ponting at Buick Store that later become Roger House, but they
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picked up the GMC franchise, so I had two new coort car franchises.
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Beside me. Tiny had Turnpikes Chevrolet, which is now what Methene's. They
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are the heavy truck can Worths and things like I'm not sure freightline whatever the
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franchise they have down there, but they're in the old Chevrolet store. But
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that's when when I went in Nitro, we had several new car stores.
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That once again there's the only new car facility. It's on the outskirts,
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just barely is Walker's Chevrolet. You can see it from the I sixty four.
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Excit. The other thing is coming to Nitro if you stop driven down
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I sixty four. We are so close to that entrance and exit being done
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in that bridge. And you think about that. You name another town that
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is going to have an eight lane lane that is going to drop into their
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city an eight lane. Now, one of those lanes, my understanding is
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it goes from Saint Alvins to Nitro. You will not have to get over
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into maybe the moving lane, so to speak, the westbound eastbound high traffic.
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You'll have your own single lanes. Interesting, that's my understanding, and
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I think, I, you know, I feel good enough about saying this.
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I believe that's how it's going to be. So you'd get on a
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Nitro, get off Saint Albans, Get on st Obbins, get off at
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Nitro. You're not over in the fast moving lane any you know, you
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look at all the exits there. We're going to have the newest with the
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newest bridge. So there's a lot of things happening down in our little community.
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And that is in the Patnam County side. That's the other unique thing
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about Nitro. Name another town that splits counties and then we have you know
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what the Greyhound racing or the Tri State or or the Marty gro Cassin or
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whatever you choose, whatever your advice is, you can go over there.
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But it's in the city, I sure. And that's one thing that I've
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watched grow over my oh my span in that town is the growth. I
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mean I can remember up there were lows and Walmart was that was kind of
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just a valley. Oh sure, yeah, I remember that too. Yeah,
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that got filled in. And if you remember that hillside there that operates
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Cracker Barrel and all that, that's what it was. It was the hillside.
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Well you know that that is cross Lane's accent, but that is Nitro
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property. It always when I was younger and always confused me. It was
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like you're going to Walmart Nitro's like, there's not a Walmart Nitro? What
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are you talking about? What there is? When Bill Green had the facility
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beside me that I purchased the flea market, he campaigned pretty darn hard,
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and I'm surprised that it did not get You may got traction, but did
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not get done. Is at the cross lanees Accent. It's called cross Slanes
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slash Nitro because it brings you right into nitror. And he campaigned, and
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he also campaigned that for Institute Institute Nitro Accent. I think the Institute Nitro
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Accent would probably be the best if you if we could pick one or two,
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say let's do this. One is the Institute Nitro because when you get
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off, you're either going to go to West Virginia State College or up to
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the Institute bla bar, or you're coming down and bam nitro. Yeah,
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there's only two ways you can go there. Yeah, that's absolutely true.
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And and one of those ways is one of the easier ways to get the
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nitro. So it's funny to watch traffic. As traffic has increased drastically,
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You let I sixty four or a pal up on I sixty four it's a
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parking lot in front of the dealership. Everybody's jumping off the institute. They're
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trying to go down, especially if that that accident happens to fall between Institute
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in the Nitro accident, or they'll come across the Nitro State on the bridge.
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But I can I can sit there and not have any news media one
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and go there's a wreck, just because you could see the traffic. There's
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a wreck. You can see the traffic, guess Larry Dawson from Larry from
23:55
Larry Dawson, I know from Steven's Auto Group. You can give us a
24:00
call this morn if you want to talk about anything in the city at Nitro.
24:03
Of course, if you want to talk about previously owned vehicles, Larry
24:06
knows a little thing or two about that as well, and give us a
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call this morning. Three zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight three
24:10
four five fifty eight fifty eight. You can find Steven's Auto Group in Nitro,
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West Virginia at four eighteen First Avenue South. Their phone number three zero
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four seven two seven zero four six four. Located online Steven's autowv dot com
24:21
Stevens Auto dot Com. It's just Steven's Auto, right, yeah, Stephen's
24:22
Auto dot Com. We'll goead and take a break. When we come back,
24:26
we still have more to talk about, and plus your phone calls or
24:27
text. If you want to text in you can as well. Three zero
24:30
four nine three five five zero zero eight. You can call three zero four
24:33
three four five fifty eight fifty. We'll be back right after this. You're
24:34
listening to Ask the Expert with Larry Dawson on five ADWCHS the Voice for Charleston.
24:40
Recently, a new client called me and started by saying, mister Morgan,
24:44
I really need your help, but I'm just a nobody. Those words
24:48
stunned me and I immediately called him back and we're now helping him and his
24:52
family after a terrible accident. I'm John Morgan of Morgan and Morgan. Everybody
24:56
who comes to our firm at their time of need is a somebody. I
25:00
grew up poor, but my grandmother was like a queen to us at Morgan
25:04
and Morgan. Our goal is to level the playing field for you and your
25:07
family and your time of need. The insurance company has unlimited money and resources.
25:12
You need a firm who can fight them toe to toe for right at
25:17
thirty years we have fought them in courtrooms throughout America. Our results speak for
25:21
themselves. And always remember this, everybody is a somebody and nobody is a
25:26
nobody. Morgan and Morgan for the People Office, two twenty two Capitol Street,
25:32
Charleston. Cases will be handled by West Virginia licensed attorneys. The attorney
25:36
in this attus not licensed in West Virginia. For the People dot Com you're
25:53
listening to. That's the expert WCHS the voice of Charles and I'm del Cooper.
25:56
Thanks for tuning in on this Wednesday morning. We are about twelve minutes
26:00
until the top of the hour before we get to nine o'clock if I don't
26:04
swallow my own tongue somehow. And you can give us a call this morning
26:07
at three zero four three four five fifty to fifty eight for Larry Dawson three
26:10
zero four three four five fifty eight fifty eight, or you can text three
26:11
zero four nine three five five zeros you eight. Larry is here and we're
26:15
talking a little bit about nightra West Virginia. And of course former Larry Dawson's
26:18
Auto Sales is now Steven's Auto Group and You can find more information online at
26:22
Stevens Auto dot Com. Steven's Auto dot Com located still at four eighteen First
26:26
Avenue South in Nightra, West Virginia. Are the legends true that you can
26:27
stand pretty much any on any corner at First Avenue and just scream where and
26:33
get to you eventually? Well, you know, when I made my trip
26:36
to New Samura and I drove, and when I drive or I normally don't
26:41
ride, I drive. I drove twelve hours down, twelve hours back.
26:44
But I'm car guy. What I look at coure? Yeah? Absolutely,
26:48
you know, gotta break the monotony and drive down and what takes back with
26:52
me when you go into it, Like Jacksonville there's a car dealership. I
26:56
don't I think it's called Jacksonville. I mean, it's got them all.
27:00
I don't know how you'd get you'd get lost, and I don't know about
27:06
you. But in that retail world, I still like that one on one
27:10
and you go into these metropolitan cities or long interstate and the other thing.
27:17
I've noticed so many stories are starting to copy the bubblegum machine. In other
27:22
words, they have glass elevated show places or show rooms. One in particular,
27:32
was an Audi store I passed and if you didn't see the I think
27:34
it was Jacksonville, Audie, I believe, but you think it was Carbonta
27:40
because they're was called the copy County, and I don't know if that's the
27:44
right word, but I never seen before another example of a semi local or
27:48
regional brand trying to mimic a national that's the genericification of these things. Where
27:55
I guess because of my raisings in Putnam County and watching my father operate a
27:59
small store, I always was a small town, small store oriented person.
28:03
And I think that once again is that for the consumer, and a West
28:07
Virginia consumer is they still like the one on one. They normally know their
28:15
dentist and their salesperson or relator and a lawyer, and you know it's just
28:18
not open well as well, say phone book. I'm telling mat, open
28:23
Google and just pick a spot. And traditionally I think West Virginia's I don't
28:30
know where we are rated at, but I think West Virginians truly like that
28:34
one on one. And I think if you took someone like myself and they
28:38
were car shopping and they got lost in that maze or they could come to
28:42
a small town in USA, small town West Virginia, small town dealer,
28:47
small town nitro at Steven's Auto, You're gonna find yourself. I think the
28:52
true West Virginia a whole lot more comfortable about that, ian Zat. I
28:56
mean, I'm a West Virginia. You know you're a West Virginia. I
29:00
there's a few years between you and I, but we've been together for a
29:03
while, and I think you and I think a lot a lot. Yeah.
29:07
And if I go over here and grab Chris or Jeff or any one
29:10
of these people, we're gonna get on the same page real quick. I
29:12
tell you that. That's the hardest thing with my mom living out in a
29:15
real area. One of the hardest things for her to find because frankly,
29:18
services out there just aren't very good. And one of the hardest things for
29:22
her to find is just someone to talk to, yes, and that then
29:26
if she needs if something doesn't go right, she can call and talk to
29:29
them. Again. That's impossible to find anymore. And she actually she recently
29:33
moved houses and had to move all of her services and stuff like that.
29:37
Man, I was nervous because it is such a train wreck up there.
29:38
When it comes to phone and internet and all that stuff in rural West Virginia.
29:42
She found one guy. The company screwed up. The company did not
29:45
have her order right, wasn't going to do it right or anything else.
29:48
She found one guy who took it upon himself when he did the service,
29:51
calls like, I'm gonna take care of this lady. And he did everything
29:55
right, was there all day and took care of her down to the tea
29:57
good. That's like such a random role of the dice anymore. That is
30:00
true. We experienced when I say we down in the little area of Nitro,
30:06
there was a sixteen inch water main break the day before Easter which flooded
30:11
some institution. I mean Roger House. A friend of mine was the former
30:15
Dodge store. He got water in his building. I got water in my
30:18
building. Keith volkswaging up water. We all sustained a lot of water.
30:22
Sixteen inch main water running one hundred PSI can produce some water well. When
30:29
I got to call and guess who, I got a call from from a
30:32
small entrepreneur in Nitro, and he said, ah, you might want to
30:36
come over your building. It looks like you got a Lake Care. So
30:38
I, you know, I jumped up and who'd I call? I called
30:41
a mayor? What ca am? I By the time I got there,
30:45
the mayor was there, the fire department was there, the police at Clark
30:48
the police officer was there. Aj Sen was there, and AJ's a wonderful
30:52
guy. He's our building inspector. And everybody of official capacity was there.
30:57
And you know what they were there for, to help you know who was
31:02
not there? West Virginia American Water. Now I'm not slamming them, but
31:07
I'm the one that called them. And finally, and I just told him,
31:11
I said, ma'am, I have the mayor here, the police,
31:14
the fire department, the building inspecter, and no West Virginia American Water because
31:18
it's not the local water company. And you're going to push a lot of
31:22
buttons and have a lot of patience to get through. Well, you know
31:26
that's not how West Virginians like it. We like, you know, I
31:30
like be on a call. Dave. I had woke them up and in
31:34
and you know he were there. It's all handed, it's all you know,
31:37
it's I'm negotiating now with the insurance company, their insurance company, because
31:41
there was a lot of damage not on them from me, but the properties
31:45
around me. But it's so much easier. And the other person was there
31:49
had not a dog in a hunt. Was my insuranceation that I happened to
31:53
know. And I'm on a first name basis with If you don't think that's
31:57
important to have have a one on one with your auto dealer, have a
32:02
little problem that you need a chip of tooth and you don't have a dentist
32:07
you can call or in my case, I had a mayor to call,
32:10
and I had some other people, but my insurance agent and not only was
32:14
he there, he called the guster. Now once it could have been insured
32:19
by my insurer er, but West Virginia American Waters has travelers and they're supposedly
32:25
taking care of all this. But that one on one relationship, you don't
32:29
think much of it until you need it. Yeah, it's we've done this
32:34
show long enough, so we've actually aged past the era where Google was useful.
32:38
It's not useful anymore. I mean it's I mean, if you know
32:40
exactly what you're looking for, you can probably find something to bolster. But
32:43
if you're just trying to find out how to do something, there's so much
32:45
junk anymore, and so much misleading things and AI generated stuff that you have
32:50
no idea how it is or anything else. You can't find anything. Those
32:53
personal relationships where you can call your dentist or your auto dealer or your insurance
32:58
agent or whatever and ask a question specifically and get a specific answer for it
33:02
is so valuable now because if you try to go to Google and honestly,
33:07
maybe seven years ago you could probably within reason, find a fairly accurate answer
33:12
to something that you're looking for in a non specified area, and it'd be
33:15
pretty accurate. Anymore, man, you can't even get a recipe that's right
33:17
anymore. And there's so much mess online it is completely unreliable. Listen that
33:22
one on one relationship. Yesterday it was raining. I had to move a
33:28
piece of equipment. I had my rollback. I was moving it from my
33:31
farm to my brother's farm, and my rollbike went in a limp mode.
33:37
Well, when I say limp mode, you know about thirty miles an hour
33:40
alt would run and I've got a piece of equipment on the back of it.
33:44
I called a small entrepreneur in Nitro John's garage, John Board, and
33:50
to ask him a question of what can you do to help me? Well,
33:54
John wasn't there, and he said, call Chase. I said,
33:58
Chase, here's my symptoms in this diesel rollback that I'm driving. He said,
34:02
can you get it here? I said, well slowly, because I
34:07
was in Windfille, I said slowly. He said, bring it by.
34:12
I brought it back. He stopped what he was doing, he went out,
34:15
and within twenty minutes it was corrected. Nice that one on one relationship
34:20
I built years ago with his family, years ago with his family. I
34:24
didn't destroy it over price, in other words, going somewhere else because they
34:29
might have been cheaper. I stayed with that institution, which is a small
34:34
entrepreneurship in Nitro, West Virginia, and we're full of them. And once
34:37
you create that once again, the name's changed, but the cores there,
34:43
Steven's Auto is the core of what I developed. It's one on one.
34:47
Come in there. They're sitting on that little stupid that I bought twenty five
34:52
years ago. I saw him there. You can wave the Malarry's there,
34:53
Jody's there, Dakota is there, Raised there, Donnie's there, Chris is
34:58
there, and you just pull in and you'll find it very comfortable. I
35:02
had it as a very comfortable setting setting and its remains a very comfortable setting.
35:07
And I'm just I'm so glad for Richard and Chase, and they were
35:14
the ones that come in. Someone was going to do it, you know,
35:16
someone I could. I'm not gonna live forever and I can't do this
35:20
forever. So of all the for the two owners, I couldn't ask for
35:27
a better transition. And nothing really has changed once again other than the side
35:32
it's Steven's Auto Nitro. Let me make sure you got the information so you
35:36
can find Steven's Auto. Of course it's located in Nitro if you haven't been
35:38
on to determine that yet from the scope of this program, Steven's Auto is
35:43
in Nitro, West Virginia for eighteen First Avenue South right there on First Avenue,
35:46
as Larry did a great job explaining during the course of this show,
35:50
extraordinarily convenient to get to regardless of what area you're coming from. You can
35:53
find out more information online. It's Steven's Auto dot com, stevens Auto dot
35:57
com and their phone numbers three zer a four seven two seven zero or six
36:00
four three zero four seven two, seven, zero, four, six four
36:02
is a number that you can that you can call. That's the old Larry
36:06
Dawson's Auto sales numbers, so you can get through right there. One additional
36:08
thing they have done, and it probably needed to be done, is now
36:13
they're open on Saturdays. You know, for the longest time I was,
36:15
and so they're open ninety six from Saturday. So there was one change.
36:20
It was probably a needed change, you know, it was a change.
36:22
It probably maybe if I had stayed, it was going to come. I
36:25
don't know. I can't speak. It's there's their bat and ball. But
36:29
I think it was an excellent choice to go on Saturdays because there is people
36:32
works Monday through Friday. Sure, you know. Unfortunately I was so small
36:37
staffed and so small that was a perk. Well, they have a staff
36:40
of Benny, you know, they have several facilities they can pull off.
36:45
They have manpower, lady power and expertise that I did not have. I
36:50
was the walking toolbox and I got tired. So now open on Saturday as
36:55
well. That's Steven's Auto Group in Nighter, West Virginia, fourteen first Avenue
36:59
South. Larry will be back here in two weeks and then two weeks after
37:00
that, yeah, yes, where I was in vacation. And this is
37:04
a five Wednesday. That's right, So three paychecks this month for a lot
37:07
of people. You're retired, man, you're retired, retire fixed, that's
37:13
right. That's Larry Dawson. It joins us here twice every month, three
37:15
times this month. You want to tune in for that as we go along,
37:19
very things for your time. We appreciate, thank you for That's Larry
37:22
Dawson. I'm del Kuker. Coming up next is going to be Dave Allen
37:23
with five Love, Hopey Chirche Fall and talk Line after that, and then
37:27
I'll be back this afternoon with Hotline and Dave Weekly F three of six.
37:30
Have a great day everyone on five AD w c HS, w c HS
37:46
A W two four three d R F M Charleston, W two A three
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a Q Cross Lanes, w VRC Media Station. We're proud to live here too,