“Clements Electric began 30 years ago on April Fool's Day when our parents, Dave and Sally, opened up an electrical contracting business out of their house in Kawkawlin. Electricity runs in the family: our great grandpa was an electrician, as well as our grandpa, our dad, and multiple uncles and great uncles were electricians. The company dad worked for wanted to send him out on the road, but knowing that would take him away from the family, he said, ‘No thanks’ and decided to go out on his own.
Clements Electric started out as one guy and a truck, but turned into three guys and a truck pretty quickly. Within a couple years, they were bursting at the seams and started picking up commercial work. They bought this building we're in currently, and the business has been growing exponentially ever since.
Today, we have 60 employees working all over the State of Michigan and we're probably going to be hiring more people here very shortly. On the residential side of the business, we'll do everything from changing the light bulbs to rewiring your house. On the commercial side, we’ll work on schools, stores, everything! We wired Ollie's in Bay City and did the new pool lights at the YMCA in Bay City. We’ve done work at the mall, at The Legacy Building, at The Times Lofts and lots of other buildings downtown. On the industrial side, we do work on places like General Motors, both the Independence and Liberty Bridges, and we're working on another industrial project up north.
But the one thing that our parents have always instilled in us is that it’s all about the community, especially when it comes to supporting kids. Everyday we get phone calls like, ‘Can you help John Glenn wrestling?’ And we say, ‘Yes, absolutely.’ You can look at any local baseball field or school in Bay City and there's going to be a Clements Electric sign. Another example is the Major Skate, Bay City MI class for kids they did over the summer. I've never touched a skateboard in my life, but we sponsored two kids to go to the class and my kids will probably go there someday, too.
For the rest of the community, we do things like the Wenonah Park Christmas tree every year, and we did the electrical for the Habitat for Humanity house that was just completed last week.
We don’t do all those things to look good, but to say ‘Thank you’ for supporting us through the last three decades. Bay City is where it all began, and you have to be true to where you came from. The community has supported our business, so we need to support the community.
Clements Electric didn’t make it to 30 years because of us or Mom and Dad.
We made it to 30 years because of Bay City, and we can’t be more thankful.”
– Jason and Rob Clements, Clements Electric
