T-R PHOTO BY SARA JORDAN-HEINTZ It’s the end of an era for Blink Electric Motors, Inc., located at 116 N. 1st Ave. On June 30, it will close its doors after 58 years in business. Since 1995, it has been owned and operated by Kathy Buschbom, the daughter of the shop’s founder, Bernard “Benny” Blink. A decline in business and competition from the Internet were cited as the reasons for its closing.

It’s the end of an era for Blink Electric Motors, Inc., located at 116 N. 1st Ave. On June 30, it will close its doors after 58 years in business. Since 1995, it has been owned and operated by Kathy Buschbom, the daughter of the shop’s founder, Bernard “Benny” Blink.

“Orval Maulsby reached out to my dad, who at that time was doing construction work in the Marshall Islands, to see if he wanted to open a shop in the other half of his building (Maulsby Electric) here in Marshalltown,” Buschbom recalled. “Dad started what he first called Reliable Electric Motors on July 1, 1959. In 1971, he changed the name to Blink Electric Motors after buying the rest of the building from Orval. Dad ‘retired’ a few times, and finally did retire in 1988.”

The business specializes in the sale of electric motors and motor repairs. In its prime, it offered these goods and services to Marshalltown’s various plants, manufacturers, heating and cooling businesses and dairies. However, the clientele Blink Electric Motors relies upon has dwindled since the mid-1980s.

“The base is gone,” said John Bendlage, a 46-year employee. “Factories here started going out of business, and the ones that stayed send out for repairs or have their own in-house repairers … There’s been a decline in motor sales too, and that’s basically what we live on.”

Buschbom said it wasn’t an easy decision to close her family-owned business after all these decades.

“We have a loyal client base, mainly farmers. They’re like old friends,” she said. “But companies are buying from bigger vendors now and the Internet has hurt us. There isn’t enough business in any one category to keep us going. We’ve just been kind of hanging in there for quite a number of years. The recession of a few years ago hurt us too.”

The three-person staff consists of Buschbom, Bendlage, and his son Jason, a 15-year employee. Buschbom started working in the shop’s office in 1975 when she was fresh out of college. Her brother Phil worked on motors there from 1972 until he left to pursue a different career path in 1995, whereupon Buschbom bought out his share in the company, becoming Blink’s president.

Bendlage said a frustrating aspect of the decline in business is the move away from American-made motors to ones more cheaply made elsewhere.

“If you can buy a motor for $100 cheaper online, you do it. But motors made in Mexico and China breakdown and then people bring them in to us to repair and it’s hard to get the parts,” he said. “It used to be we would rewind 4-6 motors a day, and now one every six months is good.”

Lynn Olberding, executive director of the Marshalltown Area Chamber of Commerce, weighed in on the impact businesses closing down can have on a city’s economy.

“It’s always hard to lose a Marshalltown business, especially one like Blink Electric Motors that has been locally-owned and operated for decades … In late 2016, the Chamber introduced a shop local campaign called ‘Think Local First’ encouraging community members to consider their local options when making purchases. According to the American Independent Business Alliance, dollars spent at community-based merchants create a multiplier in the local economy, meaning, that from each dollar spent at a local, independent merchant, 2 to 3-1/2 recirculates in the local economy.”

The remainder of the month, the staff will be focusing on finishing repair orders and clearing out inventory. With there not being an interested buyer in keeping the shop open, Buschbom will rent or sell the building.

“It’s been like a second home to me. It’s going to be a big loss,” she said.

———-

Contact Sara Jordan-Heintz at 641-753-6611 or sjordan@timesrepublican.com