Son joins father at Lincolnville machine shop
By ROWENA PLETT
Reporter / photographer
Terry Svitak could be called a "chip off the old block." The 18-year-old mechanic, who graduated from Centre High School in May, is working full-time in his father's vehicle repair shop at Lincolnville.
Terry actually is a fourth generation Svitak to pursue a career in auto mechanics.
Brothers Joseph and Rudolph Svitak came to America with their parents in the early 1880s and settled at Pilsen. Joe was a carpenter and Rudolph was a farmer.
Joe's son John attended a school for mechanics in Manhattan and worked in a shop at Cuba until he returned to Pilsen to operate a garage built for him by his Uncle Rudolph.
Later, Rudolph's son Frank took it over.
At the age of 14 years, John's son George, Terry's grandfather, began work at the garage and learned to overhaul tractor and car engines. Later, he conducted a repair business out of his garage at his residence in Pilsen. He called it Central Repair because it was located between two other repair shops in town.
George also farmed, and he and his three sons, including Terry's father Todd, did their own equipment repair.
Todd was 12 years old when he acquired an old 1947 Plymouth and restored it. He still has the vehicle.
The last two years in high school, Todd did mechanic work for others out of his father's garage.
After graduating from high school in 1983, Todd enrolled in the Salina Area Vocational-Technical College.
"With four to six weeks to go that first year, I realized I already knew almost everything that was being taught," he said. So he quit school and went to work.
He was employed at Four-Wheeler in Salina for one and one-half years, then worked for John Fenske in rural Lost Springs.
In 1986, he and his brother Randy bought the business from Fenske. Four years later, Todd bought his brother's share.
In April 1990, Svitak Machine moved to a new, large shop building one-half mile west of Lincolnville on 290th Street.
Todd has had numerous employees throughout the years. Just recently, Troy Hett, who worked for him for at least six years, quit to start a repair business of his own in Marion.
Terry practically grew up in his father's shop. After attending morning kindergarten at Lost Springs, he was dropped off at the shop just one mile south and watched his father at work.
Todd made him a go-cart which he enjoyed driving around. He also learned how to maintain the vehicle. Soon he was working on other small engines.
While in junior high school, he began to take the business of mechanics more seriously. He worked at the shop after school and in summer and learned how to overhaul engines.
It was only natural that he would join his father after he graduated from high school last spring.
Terry does maintenance and repair work while Todd concentrates on doing engine machine work such as grinding crankshafts, boring blocks, and rebuilding cylinder heads.
With thousands of dollars worth of equipment including numerous boring bars and milling machines, Todd is able to do almost 100 percent of the work in-house.
He gets machine jobs from throughout a wide area including McPherson, Abilene, Council Grove, Emporia, and El Dorado.
"I'm the only crankshaft grinder within 50 miles," he said.
He also does auto body repair.
Todd has dabbled in used car sales for several years, but now is beginning a licensed used car dealership.
He will buy vehicles, repair them if needed, and re-sell them.
Todd and his ex-wife, Tammy, have joint custody of two other children: Trent, 12, and Taylor, 10.
Trent also has an interest in mechanics. Todd said he may be part of the business some day.
"I could use him right now," he said.
Terry and Stephanie live in Herington and are parents of a one-week-old son, Jace.
If the tradition continues, little Jace just may be another "chip off the old block," a fifth-generation Svitak mechanic.
