Tracy will once again have a car wash thanks to Elijah Everson
The year 1994 was a big one for Tracy. O’Brien Court welcomed its first tenants, and Twin Circle Apartments hosted an open house to show off an extensive remodeling project. That was also the year that Tracy Auto Bath opened, much to the delight of locals who saw the car wash on the highway close that spring.
The 1994 opening of the business, owned at the time by Kim Daniels, Keith Peterson, and Lyle and Dave Peterson, was a pretty big deal back then. It featured high-pressure car wash equipment, a foamy brush, regular wand washers, and no-spot rinse and wax services.
EVERSON
There was also an outdoor vacuum, coin changer and towel dispenser.
Now, a couple of years after being shuttered, the car wash on South St. will reopen under the ownership of Elijah Everson and will be called Tracy Clean Works.
“I drove by it pretty much every day since it was put up for sale … one day I just kind of looked at, walked around it and thought I could turn it into something nice again,” said Everson.
Everson, a technician at Premium Plant Services, said he grew up around the area, as his family had a vacation home on Lake Shetek. After his parents moved to the lake, he followed suit, moving from Pipestone.
Everson said his background in mechanics — he has an associate’s degree in diesel technology — will serve him well as the owner of the car wash. In reality, it already has, as he has put plenty of elbow grease into getting it ready for the public.
“It’s very handy; even the work that I’ve been doing to it,” he said. “The condition of the car wash when I was thinking about buying — everything worked in there, but nothing worked well.”
One of the biggest focuses for Everson — like it is for all of Tracy’s residents — was dealing with the town’s hard water. He had a new water softener installed and also put in a new filter system to protect the pumps from sediments.
“The RO system was rebuilt for the spot-free rinse by Culligan of Slayton,” Everson said. “The water heaters have all been descaled — really, everything has been just kind of cleaned up. I rebuilt the pumps myself and I’m at the point where I’m testing everything and getting ready to do a soft opening.”
Everson said one of the changes he made to the car wash was with the drainage system. Originally, used water would run into a drain; now he is able to divert the water back to a tank, which will help to recirculate and conserve the warm water.
“There’s going to be no shortage of soft water,” he said. “That’s going to be huge.”
The soft opening will likely happen in mid-November, and Everson is happy to reopen a once-popular business in town.
“It was a motivator for me — seeing the place kind of unkempt,” he said. “The first thing I did was clean up all the concrete outside, mowed the yard and made it look nice on the outside … got the lights outside working again just to make it look nice, not just this ghostly building where nothing was happening.”
Everson, who also owns a welding business in South Dakota with his brother, appreciates the importance of a local business being brought back to life.
“All business is good for Tracy and the area,” he said. “It keeps money in the area.”
