Page 34 - BusinessWest July 24, 2023

way back when, they always did residential, indus- trial, and commercial work. They ran maybe three, four, six guys.”
At its heyday, Goodless said, the company was running about 90 workers, where now, it boasts about 20, keeping them busy with projects ranging from parking-lot maintenance and upgrades, gen- erator services, and fire-alarm systems to lighting retrofits, swimming pools and hot tubs, and resi- dential and commercial service upgrades, just to name a few.
“There’s a lot of jobs with UMass Amherst, a lot of state work, some city work, fire stations, DPW facilities, a little bit of everything. A lot of work for the housing authorities throughout the years, too,” he said. “We don’t do new homes, but I do additions and a lot of repair work. Out of our service depart- ment, we run about four vans, and we roll basically 24 hours a day.”
As the firm celebrated 75 years in business in 2020, an emerging pandemic posed serious chal- lenges, especially since it was performing work at the Holyoke Soldiers’ Home, where COVID killed 84 residents.
“I couldn’t get my people to go up there, and I couldn’t really blame them,” Goodless recalled. “People didn’t want to work; people were scared. I had an outbreak in my office. It was
challenging.”
What made a difference, he said, was the federal Paycheck Pro-
tection Program, which poured funds into businesses to keep their teams employed. “We took advantage of that; it was so helpful. We used it right. We used it responsibly. We kept guys going. In fact, we didn’t have to let anybody go through the pandemic at all.”
The economic ripple effects from the pandemic — particularly higher costs and supply-chain issues — still resonate, however. Good- less was able to stock up on things like 100-amp and 200-amp panels to keep housing projects moving, but said customers are still shocked
“Everybody went into computer technology. That’s really what happened; they all went into IT, computer technology, and they weren’t going through the electrical programs. But now, I think the classrooms are filling up again.”
Goodless Electric celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2020, a major milestone for any company.
and then Winter Street in Springfield, then to the current location at 100 Memorial Ave. in West Springfield, alongside the Route 5 rotary at the Memorial Bridge. Irving retired in 1977, Irving retired in 1977, around the time his nephew came on board part-time. Jeff moved into a full-time role around 1982 and eventually took over the firm’s leadership.
“Believe it or not, the type of work has stayed the same, although maybe on a larger scale later,” Jeff told BusinessWest. “But even
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