Monroe Tractor hosted an open house recently at its Latham, N.Y., facility to celebrate its 60th anniversary.

In 1951 Henry Hansen and his wife, Dorothy, launched what then was called Monroe Tractor and Implements to serve upstate New York’s burgeoning agricultural community. The Hansen’s daughter, Janet Felosky, who grew up working for the company, is now its president. Felosky’s sister, Sandy Alvarez, is corporate secretary and her son, Chris, oversees the company’s product support representatives.

“While much has changed in 60 years our values have remained the same,” Felosky said.

“It still is a family business and each dealership follows my dad’s original vision for the company. Servicing our customers is a large part of Monroe Tractor. As the equipment becomes more sophisticated our technicians need to be able to program computers,” Felosky continued.

“We also pride ourselves on having a deep understanding of specialty applications. Some areas where our specialized industry knowledge has paid off include scrap handling, recycling, demolition, refuse, milling, logging, paving and specialty construction.”

Initially, the company only sold Case products. It has since expanded its inventory to include construction equipment manufactured by Doosan, Hamm, Kleemann, NPK, Roscoe, Talbert, Towmaster, Vibroscreen, Vogele, VT LeeBoy and Wirtgen. Agricultural equipment manufactured by AerWay, Ag Leader, Case IH, Claas, H&S Husky, Intuicom, Krause, Lexicon, Meyer, RPM Tech (snowblowers) and Trimble also is available.

The dealership itself also has grown from a 30 by 40 ft. block structure on a two-acre parcel situated at the corner of Routes 15 and 253 in Henrietta, N.Y., into a statewide operation with 11 locations. Monroe Tractor can be found in Adams Center, Albany, Auburn, Batavia, Binghamton, Buffalo, Canandaigua, Elmira, Hornell, Rochester and Syracuse. Five of these locations specialize in construction equipment, five in agricultural and two handle both.

In addition to an extensive lineup of equipment, Monroe Tractor features rental and used products, same day parts delivery, shop service and on-site service for emergencies and regular maintenance.

Hansen remains CEO and serves as chairman of the board. So why at age 85 does he still come to work every day?

“Being in a family business gets in your blood,” Felosky explained. “Whenever we all get together, no matter how hard we try not to, everyone starts sharing their ideas about what we can do to make Monroe Tractor even better for our customers and employees.”

For more information visit www.monroetractor.com.

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