It’s a family affair. That’s the only way you can describe what you find at Satimore Landscape and Design just south of the city of Fulton, NY.

Well, you might add a few other descriptive words…young – they’ve only been in business since August of last year, thorough – they know how to do their homework and experienced – as the family of entrepreneurs came together to found Satimore Landscape and Design each member of the team brought years of experience to the new venture.

Believing in themselves and each other, Scott Rose, brother Brad, their mother and step father Catherine and Rick Satimore and Scott’s wife Valerie made the leap from being employees to being owners of a landscaping company serving the greater Oswego County and northern Onondaga County region.

“When you get into this business,” said Scott recently, “you immediately have a need for some pretty expensive equipment.” In this case the new small business recognized the need to have a track loader, a wheel loader and an excavator.

The questions, as with almost any new business were many. But paramount among them was which manufacturer would give them the solid dependability their new business would demand and hold up to the riggers of daily use well into the future. “We didn’t want to be replacing equipment every time we turned around,” said Scott.

It was time for some research. “We tried just about every type of equipment out there,” said Scott. This is where experience first became evident…and valuable. Rick has been in the construction business for 35 years and was currently working full-time for Orchard Earth & Pipe, Solvay, NY. The company has extensive experience in all types of earthwork and all types of soil conditions. When Orchard’s experienced people recommended the Takeuchi excavator Satimore Landscaping and Design turned to Monroe Tractor and salesman Wade Marvin at the dealer’s branch in Syracuse, NY.

The Takeuchi TB135 excavator would become a workhorse for the new company. Marvin was confident when he told Satimore of Takeuchi’s commitment to the highest standards in quality and performance “because all their products are the result of extensive research, field testing, evaluation and refinement,” said Marvin. The specifications and features that make the TB135 reliable, comfortable to operate and a performance leader quickly put it at the top of the list.

Even in the “test drive” the value of the tilt-up operator’s platform combined with a full opening engine compartment that offers quick service access was evident.

Marvin was sure to point out several other features of the Takeuchi equipment that would impress any contractor, new to the business or otherwise. It’s emergency engine shutdown/return-to-idle system helps protect the engine from damage due to low oil pressure or high coolant temperature.

A cast iron, wrap-around counter-weight, which protects the engine compartment from damage when working in confined spaces, was sure to be beneficial to a landscape contractor. Push button control of auxiliary hydraulics, low and high range travel speeds, one touch engine decelerator, electronic engine monitoring and pilot operated joystick controls are only a few of the features on a long list. Scott added, “The bogies are steel. They’re just built solid.”

The family team at Satimore couldn’t help but be impressed by the “family-team” attitude at Monroe Tractor. “We saw right way that we liked working with these people. Wade and Monroe were head and shoulders above their competition and the equipment lived up to its billing from the start.”

The start may not have been glamorous but it was impressive. Outside the Satimore building, “actually leaning up against the building” was an old truck body that a previous owner used for storage. Besides being somewhat of an eyesore, it had to be moved before it damaged the building. “Quite frankly, I didn’t expect the excavator to be able to move the truck, which was full of old conduit. But, we wrapped chains around the truck body hooked them to the TB135′s bucket and…wow. It was impressive watching the truck slide sideways away from the building.”

Satimore wasn’t to be satisfied with just the Takeuchi excavator. “Right from the start we knew we needed a track loader,” said Scott. The Takeuchi TL 130 fit the bill. And, since the company quickly grew by adding a retail nursery at its Fulton site, a third piece of Takeuchi equipment, a TW65 wheel loader has been pressed into duty moving pallets and bulk mulch around the nursery site.

For more information visit www.MonroeTractor.com
or call the Monroe Tractor sales office nearest you:
Henrietta, NY: 585-334-3867; Buffalo, NY: 716-681-7100; or Syracuse, NY: 315-452-0000.

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