The time has come for you, the public, to cast your ballots for the Small and Large
Business of the Year awards to be presented by the Greater Sierra Vista Area Chamber of
Commerce. The awards will be presented by the chamber during its annual Chairman’s
Installation and Awards Ceremony April 13. The reception will be held at the
Rendezvous, 40 Avenida Escuela, starting at 5:30 p.m.
To cast your votes, complete the ballot that will be published in the Sierra Vista
Herald/Bisbee Review and drop that ballot into one of the following ballot box locations:
The Herald, 102 Fab Ave; Sierra Vista Chamber of Commerce, 21 East Wilcox; National
Bank of Arizona, 1160 E. Fry Blvd., and National Bank at 25 S. Highway 92. Ballots
may also be obtained from the bank tellers.
The deadline to cast your ballots is noon Friday, April 1. Make your choice known.
Here are the nominees in the small business category:
La Casita Restaurant and Cantina
465 E. Fry Boulevard
Owners: Phil and Anita Garcia
Management and staff of La Casita strive to provide excellent customer service by
providing a “back to basics” training program for our employees. We emphasize the 3
R’s: Respect, Responsibility and Reliability. We work as a team, and provide lessons on
respect, manners, and to treat people like you want to be treated.
Our core values include working to exceed the expectations of our customers, and each
other. Our mantra is: “We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.” We
provide free meals to our employees when they come to work, and we have had staff
working for us for 15 years.
La Casita has been in Sierra Vista for 22 years. Our family businesses in Arizona will be
celebrating 58 years in operation this year.
We use all fresh ingredients, using family recipes, from scratch. We do not use lard in our
cooking. Our food service providers work with us on pricing so we can keep our prices
affordable.
We sponsor events and provide food certificates for: The Sierra Vista Regional Health
Center Foundation and Auxiliary; MWR on Fort Huachuca for concerts, boxing and
wrestling matches; USO to support our troops, sending care packages, and we support
their national campaign; we support the UA South Foundation’s Dine Under the Stars;
March of Dimes sponsor; and Relay for Life sponsor
We also were designated a historical building by the Sierra Vista Historical Society.
During our recent remodeling project, we used all local vendors for the services and
supplies needed including Lowe’s, Home Depot, Ace Hardware. All of our maintenance
issues are resolved by local electric and plumbing companies. Our tortillas are purchased
locally.
***
Summit Fitness and Summit Fitness Express
934 E Fry Blvd. and 1995 S. Frontage Road
Owner: Mike Strange
Summit Fitness strives to be the third place in everybody’s life: Home, work and the
gym. If you treat people as family they will stay your friends, and your customers.
Mike’s standards are reflected in the job title of the front desk people: he calls them
Greeters. Their job is to greet people when they come in, when they go out, and
whenever they need some help.
All advertising in the Sierra Vista area features member testimonials. Summit Fitness
members are offering their thoughts about the two gyms on Cox TV, Cherry Creek and
KKYZ radio, and the Sierra Vista Herald. Their thoughts are unscripted and offered
because they were impressed.
A key component of any fitness center is to impress with cleanliness. A common
expression we hear again and again is that we are really clean. Too many gyms, and other
businesses, do not take cleanliness seriously. An example: the Kids Room at Summit
Fitness is open six days a week, and it is vacuumed and mopped all six days. Moms are
very critical of a clean place for their kids; and they tell their friends.
This commitment to good customer service obviously works, as about half of all new
members are the result of member referrals.
Keeping our employees happy is important at Summit Fitness. We work with schedules,
have high pay scales, have regular employee events, and know and respect each other.
Happy employees equal happy customers.
Mike got involved with the community right away, joining the Chamber of Commerce
immediately upon becoming a businessman. In 1994 he joined Rotary and is now a 17
year member in both Oregon and Sierra Vista, including nine years as an officer and
board member.
Since moving to Sierra Vista, Mike has been involved in many Rotary efforts, most
notably as the event director for the annual Fourth of July celebration for the years 20072010. Over 700 people work together every year to make the Fourth a great event in
Sierra Vista. Mike’s was named Rotarian of the Year in 2008.
Summit Fitness annually supports many community organizations including: Good
Neighbor Alliance; Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering; Sierra Vista Regional Health
Center Foundation; Relay for Life; Sierra Vista Food Co-op; San Pedro Kiwanis/Just
Kids, Inc.; Sierra Vista Arts and Humanities Commission; Wild Turkey Federation; Fort
Huachuca Community Spouses Club; Thunder Mountain Running Club; Miss Sierra
Vista Scholarship Fund; The Huachucans; Project Graduation; Brian Terry Memorial
Scholarship Fund; and a host of school and office fund-raisers.
Summit Fitness makes it a point to leave as much of its business as it can in Sierra Vista
and Cochise County. Local businesses it does regular business with include: Ace
Hardware; Berg’s Heating and Air Conditioning; Cherry Creek Radio; Cox Media; Cox
Communications; Cochise Floor Coverings; Cyr’s Cleaning; First West Properties; High
Jump Rentals; Kennedy Kleaning; KKYZ Radio; Lawley Automotive; Nathan Williams,
PC; National Bank of Arizona; Olde Tyme Printing; Photography by Ty; Sierra Vista
Herald; SMPLFY IT; Toner West; Wells Fargo Advisors; Wells Fargo Bank; Wicked
Limitz.
In addition, Summit has corporate relationships with several local organizations,
including: American Debt Settlement Group; My Big Fat Greek Restaurant; City of
Sierra Vista; EKS Group; Highland Woods Apartments; Life Care Center; Mantech;
Northrop Grumman; SSVEC; TDY Housing; Wayland Baptist University
***
TDY Housing
956 E. Fry Boulevard
Owner: Michael Benson
TDY Housing is the local leader in temporary housing and exemplifies the best in their
industry. Management and staff are dedicated to excellent customer service, providing an
enjoyable and rewarding place to work and being a good corporate citizen.
The business provides excellent customer service by tailoring its operations and policies
to the unique needs of their principal customers – U.S. service members.
For example, since most of its customers are in class during the normal business day,
TDY Housing is open seven days a week and extended hours during the week. They also
offer a 24-hour live answering service. Since most of their customers make reservations
for rental homes before arriving in town, TDY Housing also guarantees the service
member will be satisfied with the accommodations or they will offer a release of lease
and a full refund.
As a courtesy to it customers, TDY Housing has structured its fees so that all lodging
costs for a service member and his family are fully reimbursable by the government.
TDY Housing even refunds rent for days the service member is on leave since the
government will not reimburse the service member for lodging costs on those days. This
policy represents a loss to the company of about $1,200 per service member per year
while saving the customer the same amount.
The management strives to provide an enjoyable and rewarding work place. They
encourage and facilitate all of their employees to further their educations. A third of the
workforce is enrolled in college programs. The firm also offers flexible work schedules.
At the request of front desk staff, it adopted a 4 by 10-hour work day so employees could
have three days off per week. This not only improved employee morale, but increased
productivity as well.
In addition to membership and active involvement in the chamber, TDY Housing is a
Better Business Bureau Accredited Business with an “A” rating. It also is a corporate
member of the Association of the United States Army, who supports their primary
customers.
The business gives back to the community and is a good corporate citizen through a
variety of memberships and through participation in a number of community service
activities. It has donated to such activities as Cochise Cowboy Poetry and Music
Gathering; Arizona South Foundation; Sierra Vista Regional Health Center Foundation;
San Pedro Kiwanis/Just Kids Inc.; as well as the Rotary, chamber of commerce and
public schools.
Owner Michael Benson has been an active member of the Rotary Club and has served the
last two and a half years as the club’s secretary and is on its board of directors. He is a
six-time Paul Harris Fellow and a member of the Paul Harris Society. He and the staff
have supported projects to include dictionary/thesaurus distribution, work project at the
Huachuca House and at the annual Fourth of July event. It is also a strong supporter of
public education and has received a letter of endorsement from the Superintendent of
Sierra Vista Public Schools.
The firm has instituted its own shop local policy which means it is proud to recommend
and give its patronage to local businesses such as Ace Hardware, Cox Communications,
Lawley Automotive, Office Smart, Sierra Toyota and Summit Fitness to name a few.
It also supports and promotes other local businesses by encouraging its customers to shop
local as well. For example, it places local restaurant “to go” menus and coupons as well
as information about local things to do in all of its rental homes. TDY Housing also
partners with Dollar-Rent-A-Car to encourage its customers to rent their cars locally. Not
only does this benefit another local business, but the tax dollars stay in the community as
well.