Progressive Crop Service was started in Shreve in 1983 to sell agricultural chemical and services by Duane Martin and his family in conjunction with five investors. Craig Franks began his career with PCS in 1990 and upon Duane's death in 1997, purchased the company from the family and moved the operation to Wooster. We interviewed Craig recently as he explained how PCS has continued to offer their original agricultural services while introducing new ones as the result of customer requests;

PCS Lawn Care was started in 1997 to spray and fertilize a few lawns for our neighbors. Pretty soon, we were spraying and fertilizing fifty lawns. We're now servicing over 550 accounts throughout Wayne, Ashland, and Holmes Counties. We handle the landscape maintenance for Frito Lay, Akron Brass, International Paper, and Buckeye Container in addition to many other local businesses as well as our residential customers. The services of PCS Lawn Care encompass everything these companies require on the outside of their buildings including mowing, weed control, and fertilization of their lawns, mulching beds, planting trees, and installing new lawns through hydra-seeding and slit seeding methods. We can hydra-seed everything from lawns to ditch banks and our slit seeding enables us to plant a new lawn through an established lawn that is thin or burned out. Throughout the winter, we also handle the snow removal for the companies we service.

Our paving division, PCS Paving, was started in July 2001 as an offshoot of buying a paver to do our own driveway. I wanted to do the driveway at my house and two employees wanted their driveways done, so we bought a little paver and the next thing you know, neighbors are asking if we could pave their driveways. By the time the summer was over, we had paved twenty-seven driveways. Now we have five employees whose primary responsibilities are the handling of the paving division. We install and repair asphalt driveways and we set catch basins and culverts. If a customer is building a new home, we can put in the driveway for them. For those who want to chip and seal their driveways, we can provide those services, too.

In addition to our lawn care and paving divisions, we also own and operate the West Liberty Car Wash. Our car wash is staffed full time with employees to ensure it remains clean, well-kept, and that our customers receive the same care and service they do from our other divisions.

Our main core of employees have been here since 1990 and everyone who knows them agrees that they're some of the nicest people around. These people are our greatest strength and their willingness to work as a team enables us to provide outstanding service to our customers. Although we feel that our people are the most important part of our operation, rest assured, we also have the equipment and facilities to back it up!

PCS realizes that their success is directly related to the success and well being of their customers. Jason Schumacher's specialialty is handling your agricultural needs, Dan Brooks is their lawn care pro, and Mike Mosher can lay down pavement so smooth you'll swear it's a sheet of glass. Call PCS today and don't forget to tell them that The Advocate sent you!

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