Jenski Automotive officially back from the ashes after ribbon cutting

PALMER- — One year and one day from the fire that destroyed Jenski Automotive, Randy and Teri Jenski cut a ribbon to open their new three-bay shop in Palmer. After an outpouring of support from the community, the building is finally finished with upgrades to the services Jenski can offer at the same location on 932 S Colony Way.

“It was very humbling,” said Teri Jenski.

After going through the wreckage to see what was salvageable and consulting with the insurance company, work began late in the construction season. Randy Jenski commends Gary Wolf of Wolf Architecture. The project was completed in one third of the time expected. Community response to help the local family business was overwhelming. As many as 30 workers of all different professions and companies came together to work on the building at the same time.

“We had a lot of people coming by wanting to help if we’re going to build a shop. They don’t know much but they can definitely swing a hammer. Unfortunately with the code upgrades that we had to do we couldn’t take them up on that but I sure would have liked to,” said Randy Jenski.

The family tradition of automotive service at 932 S Colony Way was not stopped by a fire.

The shop remains where it was when the Jenski family bought BJ’s Services in 1982. Randy was 12. He pumped gas. Randy left and returned to work at Jenski in 1995. The Jenski family bought the BJ’s Services corporation and Randy and his wife Teri bought out their family seven years ago.

“It’s really broadened our ability to help people out more with what they do have,” said Randy Jenski.

The new building has more square footage and parking. The 10-foot ceilings at the old building were raised to 19 feet. Jenski says the general maintenance and service offered has not changed much, they do not do major automatic transmission overhaul or diesel work. They did upgrade their ability to service air conditioning systems, got new computers, a new alignment rack and full tire systems.

“The size of our building that limited us to where we’re not really limited anymore,” said Randy Jenski.

Jenski continued to take calls over the last year, sometimes as many as 10 a day, and would refer callers to preferred shops in the area. Jenski now employs more people at the new shop, and still fields phone calls every day.

Now Randy can tell them to come to his shop. Randy has a yellow 1956 Go-Go Mobile above his desk. Teri has a sign that says ‘Girl Boss’ on her desk.

“Our goal is growth in our business and our community,” said Teri.