Eddie’s Service Center is located on the north shore of Long Island, New York. Eddie’s Service Center is a small, family owned and operated auto service center and fueling station that has been located at 743 E. Main St. in Kings Park, NY. They were past members of the NEVC and renewed their membership with Growth Energy Market Development.
The business was started in the 1970’s by Edward Piotrowski Sr. His son, Eddie, joined the business while he was in high school. In 1979, Eddie Jr. became a partner in the business and continued to run the business after Ed Senior retired in 1992. His wife Jean works at the business taking care of the bookkeeping and accounting. He was later joined by his son, Eddie Jr. who worked through high school and college. He is now a NY City Fireman and continues to work in the business part time. An important member of the Eddie’s team is the full time gas attendant, Haji, who has been working there for over 17 years.
Eddie’s joined Growth Energy in order to become more educated on E85 fuel and to be able to be proactive in conserving energy and protecting the environment. “We feel that this is an important step for our business,” noted Eddie. “Conservation and recycling are things we feel strongly about.”
He went on, “We decided to offer E85 because we were undergoing tank replacement at our station. We felt it was a good time to re-evaluate the products we were offering. We had previously been selling kerosene, we decided to not continue with kerosene and introduce E85 instead. The greatest obstacle I see regarding E85 is consumer education. Many people are not aware that their vehicles can use E85. There is also the fear that something may go wrong with a vehicle because of the alternative fuel.”
Eddie noted that the automobile manufacturers should educate the people who are purchasing the flex-fuel vehicles about the use and availability of the fuel, also consumer education is another challenge within the industry.
“Everyone who can use E-85 should be made aware of the environmental and cost benefits. The more it is used, the more popular it will become,” he said
Many of the customers at Eddie’s have been coming to the station for fuel and repairs for over 30 years and have known three generations of Eddie’s.
