BALDWINSVILLE — When a young Joe Kiselica began working in the nursery department at the Bridge Street Agway in East Syracuse, a customer asked him if he had any impatiens.
“I’ve got all kinds of patience,” Joe replied.
Joe’s manager suggested he would be more successful in the fencing department, and he fell in love with building the fences that frame people’s gardens.
“It’s just something that I’ve always felt I’m good at,” Joe said. “I meet the people and you literally change their yard.”
After building 18 years of fencing experience, Joe decided to strike out on his own. He purchased the former Gibbs Garden Center property and opened Arrow Fence Company, Inc., in 1998.
“There’s nothing like a good looking fence. It’s the frame around the picture of your home,” Joe told the Messenger back in 1998.
Twenty-three years later, Joe and his wife Amy are preparing to retire and hand Arrow Fence off to the next generation: their children, Mike and Erin Kiselica, and their nephew, Andy Kiselica.
“It seems like the natural flow,” Mike said of taking over his parents’ business.
“I’m thrilled. I think it’s a fantastic opportunity,” Andy said.
Mike will head up commercial sales as president of Arrow Fence, while Andy will manage residential sales as vice president. Erin will be the chief financial officer.
In two or three years, once the younger Kiselicas have a handle on Arrow’s operations, Joe and Amy plan to retire. Joe said they will continue their secondary business, Arrow Space Self Storage, which is just down the road from Arrow Fence.
The Kiselica kids’ destiny to take over for Joe and Amy was never set in stone. Mike said his parents just wanted him and his sister to be happy and choose their own path.
“That’s the great thing about our parents,” Erin said. “There was never any pressure.”
But both Mike and Erin — and eventually their cousin Andy — found their way back to the family business after all.
Mike approached his parents about working for Arrow Fence when he was still in college, about nine years ago. He went on to work in customer service at Lowe’s and eventually returned to Arrow Fence to work in residential sales. Not long after, Andy joined the team, starting as an installer in the commercial department.
Discussions about the future of the business began a couple of years ago, and Mike and Andy expressed interest in taking over.
The Kiselicas were having trouble finding a bookkeeper to take over for Amy, but Erin recently moved back home from the West Coast, where she worked for a major tech company for several years.
“I was looking for something of a change and I wanted to move back to the area,” Erin said. “I’m glad I was able to pick up that piece because it seemed like that was the missing piece of the puzzle moving forward.”
With the millennial Kiselicas at the helm, the next step is to recruit more installers. Andy, Erin and Mike said their generation was pushed to focus more on higher education over skilled trade careers.
“Nobody’s getting into the trades,” Joe said. “They need to realize they can make a really good living working with their hands, working outside.”
Mike called recruitment “our first hurdle,” and his father is hoping to impart his knowledge and passion for fencing to a budding workforce.
“I’m going into the field the next two years training new recruits,” Joe said. “I’m trying to get guys and girls alike to see how fun this business is.”
Arrow Fence Company, Inc., is located at 7784 Route 31 West in the town of Van Buren. For more information, visit arrowfence.net or call 315-635-0098.
