Signs Of The Times

Gasohol came to Auburn in 1979 when Tiny’s 66 Service offered it. The mixture of a corn based alcohol and gasoline is currently being touted as the answer to high fuel emissions and dependence on foreign oil.

The first radio station opened when Rich Stites went on the air with KAUB in 1981. It later closed down and was purchased by KNCY radio in Nebraska City. While there is still an office in residential Auburn, for all intents and purposes, it serves mainly as an outpost with daily newscasts and an occasional sporting event broadcast.

Perhaps a start of the service economy happened when American Lawn Care opened for business here. Up to this point, a smattering of individuals (mainly teenage boys) offered lawn mowing services. But this business offered chemical applications and landscaping as well as mowing. Because it did not depend on walk in traffic, it was operated out of a home. A number of similar businesses are now operating here.

If lawn care was a start of the service economy, the 1990s saw more established as home occupation licenses were awarded to a variety of businesses, mostly in the computer field. Everything from a business selling forms for use with computer printers to the buying and selling of antiques on line have opened. Pinning down the number of such enterprises is difficult because not all have business phones, or if they do, are not easily identified. One empty storefront was filled in 1985 with a telemarketing firm that employs a number of people yet today.

Other signs of the times came in 1996 when LT&T, the “phone company”, moved their district manager out of Auburn and subsequently shut down their office here. The national trend in telecommunications mergers was seen here as the larger company eliminated jobs by using sophisticated electronic systems at larger service centers. Not too long after the phone company left, Peoples Natural Gas also eliminated the local manager and shut down their walk-in office. It was also merged into a larger utility and contact for service now goes to an automated system in Lincoln.