Phillips County Business
Babcock's Grocery Store
The Babcock family has been providing a top notch grocery store for the Logan area for 20 years. Babcock’s Grocery store provides high quality grocery items, fresh produce, and fresh meat. The grocery store is located on northeast side of Main Street in Logan, Kansas. The store is owned by Steve and Nikki Babcock who bought it from James and Jama Babcock five years ago.
Store Hours:
Monday-Friday 8:00am-7:00pm. Saturday opened from 8am-6:00pm. Sunday-Closed.
Ron's Restoration in Glade since 1989
Since opening it’s doors in 1989, Ron’s Restoration, Inc. has restored or built over 180 vehicles consisting of antiques, classics, streetrods, customs and pickups. You will also find the business restoring that childhood pedal car or Cushman scooter. The vehicles have found their homes in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin.
Ron’s Restoration, Inc. employs full-time technicians: including an ASE Certified Master Technician for mechanical, Certified and award winning re-finishers, bodywork and frame fabrication technicians. The business also maintains up-to-date equipment for the fabrication, refinishing and assembly of it’s projects.
The president of the company, Ronald Kester, was born and raised most of his life in the Phillips County Kansas area and has always been a car buff. He credits his father for the love of cars. As a young man he bought his first vehicle for $35 when he was just 13 years old and still has that car, a 1930 Model A.
Ron has been in the automobile business since 1959, as a vehicle salesman, mechanic and bodyshop technician. He sold new and used Chevrolet and Ford vehicles for 30 years. When he and his wife, Sondra, were married in 1959, they would spend their spare time in area quarter-mile strip racing. After graduating on to legal racetracks in the late 1960’s, Ron qualified for the World Finals in Dallas, Texas amd is a charter member of the National Hot Rod Association.
In the late 1970’s he switched his car building attention to the upcoming Street Rod era building him and Sondra a 1932 Ford. The car made two trips to the east coast and back before selling it, and building for themselves a 1933 Buick 4 door. He and Sondra still have this car and is a favorite among their children and grandchildren. Ron is a member of the Buick Street Rod Association and the National Street Rodder’s Association.
Many of Ron’s projects have found themselves award winners and publication features. In 1992 the company restored a 1960 Chrysler 300 F Convertible for a realtor in Hastings, NE that won two National Chrysler 300 awards. The car was then sold at the Barrett-Jackson Classic Auto Auction in Arizona in 1998 with the purchaser being Tim Allen of the hit tv show “Home Improvement” It was re-purchased a few years later by a collector in the state of New York. That person had Ron’s restore another Chrysler for him during the years of 2004-2005.
A gold medallion award was received by Ron’s on a 1957 Ford Thunderbird Convertible at the CTCI meet in July 2000. This is the highest award than can be earned through the Thunderbird Association.
In the March 2001 issue of Classic Truck you will find featured a 1960 Ford pickup built by Ron’s equipped with a 4.6 Ford police car package drive train and a 1994 Ford step-side box.
Northern Rodder magazine featured in three of their monthly publications a 1935 Chevrolet, a 1937 Pontiac and a 1933 Ford Roadster completed by the business. The 1933 Ford Roadster was also picked by Rod and Custom Magazine as one of their top 100 cars during the year 2001 and won Boyd Coddington Pro’s Pick at the GoodGuys Mid-Western Nationals in Kansas City in 2004.
During the year 2002 the business completed a custom 1971 Ford Mustang with a 502 Chevrolet Ram Jet Fuel injection engine and Vortech Super charger. The car was invited to the Daryl Starbird show in Wichita, KS at the end of January 2003 and won a Comp D’Elegance gold award. From their it traveled to the ISCA World of Wheels show in Kansas City and won 4 awards. It was the featured article in the September 2003 issue of Super Rod magazine and the April 2004 issue of Car Craft magazine.
Nebraska Street Rod of the Year, Outstanding paint and Best in it’s Class at the 2004 ISCA World of Wheels show in Omaha was awarded to a 1935 Chevrolet Master Deluxe Coupe built by Ron’s. The car was also featured in the May 2004 issue of Street Rod Builder.
In June 2004, Ron’s Restoration completed the changes to a 1967 Corvette qualifying it for Bloomington
This article and pictures taken from the website: http://www.ronsrestoration.com/
Helping with business succession......
As a general definition, succession planning is the process of preparing to hand over control. Specifically, business succession planning is the process of preparing to hand over control of the business to others in a way that is the least disruptive to the business’s operations and value.
Phillips County Economic Development is interested in helping business owners with this process. A service we provide is listing your business on our succession page. This page is located under the business opportunites tab on our website. Also, staff are available to help in order to make the transition to new owners a pleasant experience for all involved.
For more information on Business succession planning, contact our office at 785-543-5809 or email Jeff at pced@ruraltel.net
BIH Plumbing and Electric, Inc located in Agra
BIH Plumbing and Electric in Agra, Kansas is another example of the loyalty and dedication small town business owners have to Phillips County. BIH is in it’s 27th year of business in this community.
This business has been an active part of the Agra community since 1982. Originally located adjacent to the grocery store in downtown Agra, BIH built a new building at 919 Frontage road after a fire damaged their original location.
BIH provides certified plumbing, electric, well repair, heating and air conditioning services to the surrounding area. In their showroom, not only do they have an inventory of plumbing and electrical needs, they also carry Martin-Senour paint.
BIH is owned by David Hesterman and currently employees 4 individuals. Contact Dave or Jan at 785-638-2335 for any plumbing or electrical services needs.