Customer Testimonials

Hi, my name's Chris Saylor, President of Saylor Lawn and Landscape. We do design build, residential and commercial, meaning we will design and install anything from small stoops and sidewalks to the front doors, to as grand as a a complete oasis outdoor living experience. We offer commercial and industrial snow removal. We do commercial lawn and property maintenance. We do a lot of HOAs and 55 and over communities, full turf treatments. We've been in business for 25 years and started out as just me in the field. As a kid, I couldn't find summer job to work around my baseball schedule, so I started just driving my bike into little old ladies houses and I would mow their lawn with their mowers. Over time I saved some money, joined forces with a buddy of mine that I played baseball with, and we grew that into quite a nice little business as high school students. Sold it when we graduated, went on to college, and after 5 years at school, I decided to move back home into the Valley. Started my own company again, and here I am, 25 years later. New Tripoli Bank has been a huge partner for Saylors Lawn and Landscape from inception. You know sometimes opportunities present themselves to us and we may need to grow with staff or product or equipment and we don't have the money on hand to go and purchase these things outright, so we would go to New Tripoli Bank, Dave Sherwin, and we would analyze and mull things over a little bit. With the help of New Tripoli Bank, we have gone from the starter company to a business that's turning millions in revenue a year. We pulled loans for anything from dump trucks to our first mulch blower, which is one of the things we used for the East Penn School District playgrounds. That was a $90,000 purchase that was new to me; I wasn't sure that I could completely justify the numbers but I went to the bank, I think they believed in it enough as well, we did it and lo and behold it was one of the best things we ever did. We do a lot of playground mulching for the East Penn School District, a lot of their elementary schools. I think that's a highlight for the summer for a lot of our guys, I think they look forward to it, I think sometimes it's taken them back to their youth a little bit. Saylors employs a lot uh local guys and gals, whether it's the administrative team or the the crews and technicians out in the field, there's a huge sense of community pride within this organization. I think it's a huge responsibility of us within the community to set the standard on the aesthetic appeal, curb appeal, of commercial properties, industrial properties, and the HOAs and 55 and plus communities. New Tripoli Bank is very proud to work with businesses within the community and I think that they are proud to see the individuals from within the community succeed and prosper and I think that they enjoy experiencing the success with the businesses they partner with. They make you feel comfortable when you go to them as a bank, you sit down with Dave Sherwin, you walk into a bank you're dealing with tellers, even John Hayes—you know the the big dog at the bank—every single one of them makes you feel like you've known them forever. Whether it's the first time you met them or you've been dealing with them for 25 years, they're just outstanding folks.

Hi, I'm Jason Lauchnor, and I run Hampton Lanes and the Hammerhead Hops & Grill. We have a state of the art bowling alley, great bar, great food, craft beer, self-served beer wall, arcade, restaurant-slant-corporate-party area, birthday party area. My dad originally bought the business in '92. I was in the Navy, my dad called me and he said, "I bought a bowling alley!" and I said, "That's pretty cool, which one?" and he told me, "Hampton Lanes!" and I said, "Oh, I don't know about that one—that one's, uh, not doing so well." and here we stand today with a state-of-the-art, greatest bowling alley in the Lehigh Valley. In the Navy I was good at two things: I made the Navy bowling team and, well, I drank a little bit, so this seemed like the glass slipper. So my dad bought it in '92, he doubled the size of the building in '98, I had a high interest loan from somewhere, that's when he met up with New Tripoli through Fred Alexander who turned them on to Dave Sherwin and New Tripoli has been with us ever since. We were in the news not too long ago for the big collapse in February of 2021. After coming off of COVID, not making very much income, now we didn't have much of a business and we had to rebuild. Took over two years due to supply chain issues. New Tripoli was there step by step. They helped us out, they definitely made sure the insurance company and the contractor kept doing what they were supposed to be doing, they helped us along there 'cause there was some unforeseen delays, they stuck with us the whole time and we've come out on the other side doing great. We're a community gathering place. Of course we got bowling, bowling leagues, we do a lot of open bowling in the summer, we do a kids bowl free program that has about four- to five-thousand kids signed up for it. We bus in daycares, day camps, corporate parties, birthday parties, we do live entertainment in the bar from time to time, we do special events fundraisers for all sorts of things. Pretty much anything. I've seen my bar regulars that came in for the bands and the karaoke now have their kids coming in for their birthday parties. New Tripoli Bank obviously they were with us through COVID and the collapse of the building, so I've worked with them probably too much and they probably say the same thing. Dave Sherwin, he's good guy, he's always been there for us, he's easy to get a hold of, I never have to wait on hold or days for a phone call back back, I get a hold of them, ask my question, he'll give me an answer just like that. New Tripoli stayed with us through the thick and thin, through COVID, through the collapse. I would say if you haven't checked them out you're doing yourself a disservice. As far as a bank goes, they have always been top notch.

<p>Hi, I'm Jared Yuskauskas, and for a little over a year I've been working as a real estate agent, and I am a very happy customer of New Tripoli Bank. I live in New Ringgold, Pennsylvania, with my spouse, Vince, and our four dogs: Maddie, Aspen, Henry, and Maggie Mae. A few years ago, we made a choice to buy the land that this house is built on up here in New Ringgold, and we needed a bank who did land loans. New Tripoli Bank came highly recommended and we met with Gail Post who guided us through the land loan process. We were thrilled with our experience, so when the opportunity presented itself to buy a neighboring lot, we went back to New Tripoli and we purchased again with them for the second lot of land. And as Gail joked at our first closing on the first lot of land that she might be retired by the time that we were ready to build, as circumstances presented themselves, we decided to move that timeline up, in part to be closer to our families, and again Gail was able to guide us through the construction loan process. We couldn't be happier with our experience, Gail guiding us through two land purchases and then transitioning one of those into a construction loan for the house that you are looking at right now.</p>

<p>My name is Carl Schwartzentruber, I'm the owner of Green Acres Outdoor Living, Green Acres Home Furnishings, and Green Acres Fuel. We have two stores here in Lehigh Valley, PA, and one store in Marietta, GA. We have Outdoor Living products of all sorts for your home. We sell indoor furniture both hardwood and stuffed furniture. When the outdoor living slows down we shift our staff into fuel oil and heat people's homes throughout the Valley. We started the very first part of this business when I was 17 and we used to load wooden lawn furniture up on the back of a pickup truck. Three afternoons a week, we'd come park the truck, unload the furniture along the road, sell it, and go home again. And that was the beginnings of what today is Green Acres Outdoor Living. I was gone for a few years in the 90s and then came back in 1999 to take over full management. In 2017, my father fully retired and I bought out the last of his shares. So today we're working on the next generation. We have done home shows both here in Lehigh Valley and also in Georgia. About 15 years ago we started doing them in-house, so we have an expo every spring at our stores that we invite the public to and it's a really fun time. We do food, there's fun activities, and it's become a time when the community can come together and just visit and have a good time. It's the highlight of the year for us. Well, our relationship with New Tripoli Bank goes back over 20 years and I've really really appreciated the personal relationships that I've been able to build. Since the very beginning we've been using deposit services and that's been a core element that they have provided very, very well, but lending services also. The very first mortgage that we did on our Whitehall property, which was the first capital purchase that we made 20 years ago. For the last 15 years, probably, it's been Dave Sherwin, and he and I have been very close friends. He has always been there for me when I needed something. Many times when I thought I was facing a difficult challenge he made it look easy. One time in particular I remember I was buying two semi trucks to add to our fleet, and was planning to finance them through the manufacturer, and the manufacturer gave me an interest rate that I thought was ridiculous, and I made a call to Dave Sherwin. He said absolutely, we'd love to finance them and he beat the manufacturer's finance rate by about 3%. Dave Sherwin's been trying to get me to sign up for Positive Pay for months already. I resisted it because of the complexity and the cost. We had our first check washing incident about 3 weeks ago, we had a fairly large check that somebody just changed the name and address on and deposited, and when our vendor called us and was asking about payment we discovered what happened. Even though it was not the Bank's fault in any way at all, New Tripoli Bank was extremely helpful, as they always are, in getting that resolved, and we're signed up for Positive Pay with all of our deposit accounts, and I couldn't be happier with the way that service is working. As far as a banking partner goes, I couldn't be more grateful for the partnership of New Tripoli Bank. We couldn't do business the way we do it without good banking relationships and New Tripoli has proven to be a very capable and worthy partner over these years and I look forward to growing old with them.</p>

<p>Hello, I'm Thomas Jankowski, I'm president and one of the principal engineers at Profi-Vision. We're specialized in providing control engineering solutions for Mining and Cement Industries and other applications in North America. So Profi-Vision specializes on designing control systems with machine learning and higher-end controls. We cover a wide variety of applications, we start at the low voltage distribution, electrical engineering, and we program the controls to reduce the carbon footprint and negative effect on the environment. In the early 2000's, Profi-Vision found new customers here in the US that required a move from Germany to the US to satisfy the local needs. We saw the opportunity to open up business here in Lehigh Valley and worked with the local colleges and engineering companies to establish ourselves. This gave us opportunity to work on challenging projects like water treatment to reduce the environmental impact of some of our customers. The water, before it entered rivers or other areas, had to be neutralized, so we use machine learning algorithm to lower the pH value and neutralized it to standards better than the EPA approved. Profi-Vision as a company has the same challenges as any engineering company; we have to train our side with the new technology, bring up to speed the areas that are continuously evolving, so the challenges that we see are the non-acceptance at the beginning of the new technologies with the fears of not understanding. Our customers have to be trained and be brought up to speed to be comfortable with the technology that they're using. So I've been in business for more than 30 years and for me basically dealing with the banks globally was always a challenge. When we started looking to expand and looking for a new building the New Tripoli Bank approached us instantly with not only one but more than one solution. They made us very comfortable in making that decision and telling us how to move from financially one position to next. The bank showed us the possibilities, not only one option but several options, how to approach it and guided us actually through the whole process to achieve what we wanted. And I think for any business owner, especially people that want to open new businesses, talking to New Tripoli Bank gives us a very understandable toolbox. You have a feeling you talk to somebody that tries to put themselves in your shoes. They had the understanding of what we're doing and understanding how to support us financially.</p>

<p>Hi, I'm Chad Balliet and my family and I own South Mountain Cycle &amp; Cafe here in Emmaus, Pennsylvania. We are a bicycle sales and service shop and we have a large retail store. We work on kids bikes, adult bikes, electric bikes, race bikes&mdash;anything with two wheels and a pedal. So, our goal with opening our store was to give people a great place to come and be serviced properly. We can size and fit you properly for a bicycle, give you honest service work, and just give you an experience that you want to do what you love and and be able to go out on your bike and and enjoy it. A couple of customers have come in and making them feel confident at 350 lbs that they can ride a bike and they come in a year later and they've shaken 100 lbs they look great and they're out doing things that they never thought they would do before or people coming back and sharing the pictures after their camping trip with their family. You know what I mean? Like when you're trying to figure out how we can get five bikes in a car, those are the things that I get excited about. We want to be supportive of our community and their needs, whether you're riding a bike for fitness or you're actually using it for your transportation. I would say we got involved with New Tripoli Bank probably in 2017 and at that point our business was at a really critical point of growing and changing. An opportunity presented itself for us to purchase our building and not have to rent anymore. It's hard starting off as a small business and going somewhere and asking for money and New Tripoli was so willing to listen to our business plan and very supportive of us being able to get the proper funds necessary to continue to grow our business. You got to be aligned with the proper people and it's never been a question of whether or not New Tripoli is involved in our community. They're very engaged in our community. So what gave us the idea of having a retail store with a cafe in it was really being able to create community bringing people together. Our business isn't unique to anybody else's small business, we definitely rely on people coming back, making sure that they constantly have a great consistent experience. I would call us facilitators, right? So people want to ride bikes and we get to keep them on their bikes, whether it's doing repair, whether it's getting some adjustments set up, just making sure that they understand all of the different accessories that are available to make their ride more enjoyable. Having our our staff trained that when someone comes in and new products are out, we can educate them on that. Being able to feel comfortable coming in, maybe having a couple extra pounds on you, and to a place where you're not judged, where you can just come out. We'll get you sized up for a bike and keep everybody doing what they love&mdash;riding their bike. I would recommend anybody to New Tripoli Bank. It's like an episode of Cheers&mdash;it's where everybody knows your name. The people know who you are, they know your needs. We have our loan officer come out and visit and just really has an understanding of our business.</p>

<p>Hello, I'm Thomas Jankowski, I'm president and one of the principal engineers at Profi-Vision. We're specialized in providing control engineering solutions for Mining and Cement Industries and other applications in North America. So Profi-Vision specializes on designing control systems with machine learning and higher-end controls. We cover a wide variety of applications, we start at the low voltage distribution, electrical engineering, and we program the controls to reduce the carbon footprint and negative effect on the environment. In the early 2000's, Profi-Vision found new customers here in the US that required a move from Germany to the US to satisfy the local needs. We saw the opportunity to open up business here in Lehigh Valley and worked with the local colleges and engineering companies to establish ourselves. This gave us opportunity to work on challenging projects like water treatment to reduce the environmental impact of some of our customers. The water, before it entered rivers or other areas, had to be neutralized, so we use machine learning algorithm to lower the pH value and neutralized it to standards better than the EPA approved. Profi-Vision as a company has the same challenges as any engineering company; we have to train our side with the new technology, bring up to speed the areas that are continuously evolving, so the challenges that we see are the non-acceptance at the beginning of the new technologies with the fears of not understanding. Our customers have to be trained and be brought up to speed to be comfortable with the technology that they're using. So I've been in business for more than 30 years and for me basically dealing with the banks globally was always a challenge. When we started looking to expand and looking for a new building the New Tripoli Bank approached us instantly with not only one but more than one solution. They made us very comfortable in making that decision and telling us how to move from financially one position to next. The bank showed us the possibilities, not only one option but several options, how to approach it and guided us actually through the whole process to achieve what we wanted. And I think for any business owner, especially people that want to open new businesses, talking to New Tripoli Bank gives us a very understandable toolbox. You have a feeling you talk to somebody that tries to put themselves in your shoes. They had the understanding of what we're doing and understanding how to support us financially.</p>

<p>My name is Laurie Wuchter, my husband Dan and I own the business of the Allentown Fairground Farmers Market. We have over 60 vendors here at the farmers market, bringing mom and pop businesses here to the local area. We're open every week, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday in Allentown. This has been here since 1953. I started here in 1994 with a flower stand of all things and met my husband Dan and fell in love and the rest is history. He was one of the first vendors here in the Farmers Market as a fresh poultry business and then one day he decided he was going to do the rotisserie oven, so he sold it to Mr. Bill and he came down an opened Dan's barbecue.</p>
<p>With repairs in the Farmers Market, my husband and I were struggling. A couple years back we had gotten loans in different places and the interest was so high. We met with an amazing gentleman, Robert Kern, that works at New Tripoli Bank. What he did was he gave us a consolidated loan at a great interest rate&mdash;he made it affordable. We told him what we could make the payment at, and he just helped us so much, it was just awful&mdash;we were drowning.</p>
<p>The farmers market is an amazing place to shop, from candy, to crafts, to all the ethnic foods we have in here. The meats, the seafood, produce, everything&mdash;it's an amazing place to shop. We have different businesses here in the farmers market: we've got Stoltzfus Amish Deli, Culinary Experts where you can come in and get prepared meals to go, Baringers Meats, who actually slaughter their own products and bring them in here to the farmers market. You don't have to worry about how long it's been in that case! And we've got Mr. Bills, all his stuffed burgers and stuffed chicken breasts, Southern Delights at the east end of the market, we're very proud of having Mary Ann Donuts here in the farmers market, we have Amish Village Bake Shop, we have Vallos Bakery, just so many great merchants here. You have foods of the Mediterranean, that's here every week making everything from scratch, we have Korean food, Vietnamese, she's an amazing chef from Vietnam, all under one roof.</p>
<p>We pride ourselves in a lot of community activities for local children. We're very involved with community events like basketball tournaments throughout the area and providing them with foods and stuff, but we try to support all the local non-profits, all the people that are looking for donations. We do stuff with Dollars for Scholars to try to promote them to sell gift certificates and give them money back for their different band classes or trips that they're taking. We try to do anything we can with gift certificates and helping people out in the community.</p>
<p>We are not a number at New Tripoli Bank. I just can't express enough how good it is to work with them, because it's not just "go to the website and fill out a form." They're just amazing with their service&mdash;I can call Robert and ask him a question about anything and he always picks up the phone. New Tripoli Bank took a risk on us and they have just really worked with us. They understand the fact that you may need help every once in a while, they will sit down, they will talk to you, they will go over it with you and and work it out if they can. With New Tripoli Bank, they know us&mdash;we're not a number for them.</p>

<p>Hello, I'm Kevin Campbell. I'm president and CEO of Barry Isset &amp; Associates. We are a multi-discipline engineering firm headquartered in the Lehigh Valley. We have nine offices throughout the eastern half of Pennsylvania. As a multi-discipline engineering firm, we have about 10 different disciplines that we provide, from survey, geotechnical engineering, environmental through civil, land development, structural engineering, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, we also do forensic engineering wastewater traffic and our biggest group in the company is now our field services group, which currently numbers about 80 people. At Barry Isset &amp; Associates, we pride ourselves on being part of the community. We get to see our work every day as we drive around throughout the Lehigh Valley: Dorney Park, Blue Mountain Ski Area, Air Products, Olympus, the ArtsQuest Center, and many projects at Deca Battery. Similar to New Tripoli Bank, we consider ourselves a community engineering firm. We're involved with the volunteer center, for several years we've done projects at the Salvation Army, we do clean up with the conservation district. Every project that we are involved in improves the quality of life. We're now celebrating our 45th year in business and for the first time in 45 years we own a building! It would not have been possible without New Tripoli Bank. When we needed to purchase the land, we reached out to John Hemak and John Hayes a New Tripoli Bank and we arranged to have a loan to purchase the land. About four or five years later, when it came time to start building the building, we reached out at that time to several banks, but in the end New Tripoli Bank was the most aggressive and most flexible and we really appreciate the confidence and trust that they had in us to loan us the money to build this beautiful building. New Tripoli Bank prides themselves on being a community bank; they're not some huge commercial national bank. When you reach out to them, you sit down, you have a very friendly conversation and the whole process is very streamlined.</p>

<p>My name is Maria Ortiz, I'm the co-owner and project manager of Zitro &amp; Roni Real Estate. Our company is a real estate firm focused majorly in renovation and construction at the moment. So, we started out in the commercial space with strip malls and office spaces here in the Allentown area. A couple years ago, we had a really good opportunity to start with our first residential multi-family project which was the renovation of 12 apartment units in Hazleton. Since then, we've gotten a lot of really great opportunities that require a little bit more time and resources. So we're currently working on two apartment buildings in the Hazleton area and these are all going to be brand new apartments. With our projects we have been able to employ a lot of vendors and contractors in our local community and through working with these projects our goal is to revitalize a lot of these overlooked spaces. New Tripoli Bank was able to gift us with trust and confidence since the beginning of our relationship. As we started to grow and expand outside the Lehigh Valley area, we were able to keep this trust and confidence even when we expanded beyond the local area they cover and move into Hazleton. Working with New Tripoli Bank and our lender Robert Kern has been great. I can recall our most recent transaction&mdash;it was a really big investment for us and working with the seller got a little bit difficult and New Tripoli Bank and Bob Kern were able to step in to offer the seller the reassurance they needed to help us move along with the deal and, you know, settle as planned. We wanted to work with a bank that saw us as more than just one more in a big list of clients and with New Tripoli Bank we were able to get this from the beginning of our relationship up until, you know, our most recent transaction. And with New Tripoli Bank we truly felt seen and understood which is something that in previous relationships with other Banks we were not really getting. So if you're looking to work with a bank that truly sees you and your business as a key part of your local community we definitely recommend working with New Tripoli. [Music]</p>

<p>ANDREW: Hello, I'm Andrew Miller.</p>
<p>JOHN: I'm Jonathan Miller, together we operate Blue Mountain Farms. Here at Blue Mountain Farms, we are a wholesale greenhouse, we sell annual potted plants to the Eastern Pennsylvania/New Jersey area. We sell to garden centers, fundraisers, and churches.</p>
<p>ANDREW: We grow seasonal plants, we start off the year with tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, lilies,&nbsp;a lot of that product goes into the local churches. Going into the Fall, where we raise a lot of the hardy chrysanthemums. After the Fall we move into Christmas season which we carry poinsettias,&nbsp;we also do some fresh greenery items which people can put<br />outside, and some of that goes on to the cemeteries as well.</p>
<p>JOHN: My grandfather immigrated from Switzerland, and he started in East Hanover, New Jersey. He was there for many years, and then he moved the business here to Schuylkill County in 1974.</p>
<p>ANDREW: So, I grew up in the greenhouse business at a very young age, working with my grandparents and my parents. There's always something to do on the farm.</p>
<p>JOHN: In the last 10 years we have tripled in size. We have 180,000 square feet inside greenhouse space,&nbsp;and about 12 acres of outside production.</p>
<p>ANDREW: I've grown to enjoy the business. When you're in the greenhouse business, you see your product growing, and it gives you a sense of accomplishment.<br /><br />JOHN: When COVID hit, that was right before the Easter of 2020, we lost all of our sales to all the churches and all the garden centers had to be closed in the state of Pennsylvania.<br /><br />ANDREW: Every business has its hardships with the supply chain issues,&nbsp;fertilizers, plastic containers, soil, labor, just trying to battle all those things in the last couple years, it's been a lot.<br /><br />JOHN: We were very thankful for the PPP Loan to get us through that time.&nbsp;I worked with New Tripoli Bank and John Hemak, it was really easy and seamless.<br /><br />ANDREW: They try to understand your personal needs. New Tripoli really doesn't nickel and dime you with all the little fees<br /><br />JOHN: With the ATM, I can bank at any time. Sometimes I drop off the deposit at 10 o' clock at night. I can do a lot of stuff from the mobile app and if I need to, the bank is there to help me.<br /><br />ANDREW: I personally used them for my home mortgage loan and they were very easy to work with. They tend to listen to you more and understand the roles of farming. They're just a small community, and that's one of the features I really like about the bank.<br /><br />JOHN: New Tripoli Bank is just easy to deal with, they understand your business and they will listen to you.</p>

<p>My name is Jenae Holtzhafer and I'm the founder and executive director of the Kindness Project. The Kindness Project is a 501c3 nonprofit organization that serves children that are experiencing foster care by providing tangible goods and also enrichment opportunities for free. We are 100% donation-based and volunteer-run. We have over 100 volunteers and we've been able to serve over a thousand children across eastern Pennsylvania. The Kindness Project started in the end of 2017, when my husband and I started licensing to be foster parents. Our original intention was to create a foster closet which would have all the things kids need when they go into foster care. What we realized through the process is that families who are fostering them many times don't have the extra financial resources. We thought that this was something we should try to pursue; to provide support for families who really want to do this and not have the financial burden stop them from saying yes to taking children into their safe and structured homes. So in October of 2017, we began collecting donations in our dining room and little did we know that starting something out of plastic tubs in our dining room would lead to having a two-acre property that would allow for so much more for these children that we are serving. And what we see ourselves as now is a foster care community center, not just a foster closet, so we're really excited about the special events we're going to start having; free tutoring, free piano lessons, we've partnered with community organizations to provide free horseback riding and free swimming lessons. So many things that children typically don't have an opportunity to do when they are in the foster care system. As a small non-profit with limited resources and limited volunteers, we really needed to work with somebody who could make that process easy. We worked with other banks in the past and it was just so impersonal, so difficult at times, and when we met with New Tripoli, we walked out of there feeling so relieved that we'd finally found a bank that was just easy. We set up our accounts, the mobile app is fantastic; I barely have to go over physically to the bank which is huge for me because my time is limited. I love that i can just deposit checks through my phone late at night. If I do have to go to the bank, they're always so pleasant and they treat me like somebody they've known for 10 years. We really love New Tripoli not just for the ease of using their services but also that they truly care about us. We run a mini golf tournament every fall and they always sign up to be part of that, which just shows their commitment to us as a non-profit. That to us means the world because I'm not sure that there's a whole lot of other banks that would do something like that for a small nonprofit and so we could not be happier having chosen New Tripoli Bank as our bank partner.</p>

<p>I am Bill McQuilken, I am a firefighter with the New Tripoli Fire Company, and I'm also President of the Fire Company.<br /><br />My name is Gary Kuntz, Jr. I'm the current Fire Chief at the Community Fire Company of New Tripoli. I served as Deputy Chief under Chief Peter Christ for the past 11 years and this is my first year as Fire Chief.<br /><br />BILL: The New Tripoli Fire Company actually started with a bunch of guys that got together in 1944 to discuss putting together a fire company. We received two army vehicles which we converted into fire trucks. Lehigh County commissioners approved the organization and we became the Community Fire Company of New Tripoli.<br /><br />GARY: We currently operate out of a brand new, state-of-the-art facility. We've incorporated an EMS unit into our facility; we have EMS coverage 24/7. We are the main hub of EMS and fire service for Lynn Township. We're doing very well with approximately 30 firefighters on our roster. We currently have five junior firefighters and we continue to grow as an organization.<br /><br />BILL: One of the most difficult things for all organizations across the United States has been dealing with the COVID<br />pandemic. As a fire company, we were no longer able to raise funds, such as our annual "Guns &amp; Cash Bash," hall rentals, and different types of events, which are vital to keeping our equipment maintained and keeping us afloat. We were able to still work through this, through different types of fundraisers, and attract some new firefighters to the organization, and continue to serve the residents of all of our surrounding communities without any interruptions.<br /><br />GARY: Our organization has served Lynn Township and the Northwestern community since May of 1945 in cooperation with the New Tripoli Bank. I know some of our original founders were highly involved with the Bank and the Fire Department<br /><br />BILL: They were there to help establish us, not <br />only back in&nbsp;1945 but all through the years.<br /><br />They've helped guide us financially, they've supported us with our fundraisers, they supported us over the years with the purchase of our trucks and our buildings.<br /><br />GARY: Our new building, our apparatus, gear for our members; the bank has been a big part of our organization since the beginning.<br /><br />BILL: I've had quite many meetings with Brenda in the customer service office since I've become president. She's guided me through many different types of issues and I had to be placed on lots of different accounts, and the bank has been of wonderful help.<br /><br />GARY: So, again, I would like to thank the New Tripoli Bank for being a partner with our organization, for being there for us in time of need. Whether it's monetary need, advice, just being a vital part of our community and helping our organization grow and flourish, and helping our members to provide fire protection for the Northwestern community.</p>

<p>SHARON: Hi I'm Sharon Bagonstose.<br /><br />STEPH: Hi I'm Steph Fenstermacher and Sharon and I are co-owners of the Buttered Crumb LLC here in New Tripoli.<br /><br />SHARON: The Buttered Crumb specializes in old-fashioned, made-from-scratch baked goods.<br /><br />STEPH: Things like molasses cakes, shoe-fly pies, sticky buns, different crumb cakes.<br /><br />SHARON: Cookies, kiffles, you name it, we make all kinds of baked goods.<br /><br />STEPH: Some things had changed at the company I was working for and my sister was talking about early retirement and we just decided to start a bakery out of the basement of my home.<br /><br />SHARON: My sister had approached me about this idea about opening up a home-owned bakery. Growing up in a large family, I was the oldest of five children. We did a lot of cooking for our family.<br /><br />STEPH: I didn't grow up in this business unless you count cooking for a family of seven. I was attracted to I guess just naturally it's something that I've always enjoyed doing.<br /><br />SHARON: I also loved home ec. class when I was in high school, to this day I'm still using some of the recipes that I had over 40 years ago.<br /><br />STEPH: One of the things that we're really proud of is our involvement with the Lowhill Food Pantry. We realized that we were making 500 Christmas cookies to feed about 40 people. So one of us got the braniac idea that we should contact the Food Pantry and see if we could donate those cookies. As of last year we were making over 2,000 for the Food Pantry at Christmas time. Anytime we've had tips over the last five years we've donated those, we don't keep those for ourselves, it's just something that we give back.<br /><br />SHARON: One of the things we got involved in a couple years ago is the Great Allentown Fair. Two years ago we started sponsoring one of the baking contests. This year we will be judging the Shoe Fly Pie Contest, so we're really excited about participating in that.<br /><br />STEPH: When we first started this business, we started out of my house.<br /><br />SHARON: And we were amazed at how fast we grew. We outgrew her home probably at least two years ago. We started looking for properties and we went with the New Tripoli Bank. We love the fact that it's a local bank.<br /><br />STEPH: New Tripoli Bank has been critical to getting us to the place we're at, giving us a mortgage for the building we're standing in.<br /><br />SHARON: We recently took out a small loan and the loan officer actually came here. It was such a busy day for us he offered to stop in here and have us finalize the papers and sign everything, which to me was wonderful that he saved me a trip.<br /><br />STEPH: New Tripoli Bank I really appreciate the fact that they give you a personal touch. You walk into the tellers and they know you by name. Or if you go through the drive thru it's "hey Steph how you doing today, when's the business opening?"<br /><br />SHARON: We were grateful to our friends, our family, our customers, the bank, everybody that I've just mentioned has helped us grow this business to a point that we never thought it would be.<br /><br />STEPH: In an industry that typically has a high fail ratio, they've taken a chance on us and just want to say thanks to New Tripoli Bank because we wouldn't here without them either.<br /><br />And one of the things that I love the most and actually my puppies love the most is when we go through the drive thru they each get a dog biscuit.</p>

<p>My name is Connie Sholl and this is Macungie's Posey Patch located in Macungie, Pennsylvania. We are a full-service flower shop. We deliver throughout the Lehigh Valley for birthdays, weddings, funerals, special occasions of any kind. We pride ourselves in making sure every customer's experience with us is a positive one. I did not grow up in the floral industry; I started part-time at a flower shop in 2000. I was a partner in an interior design firm and looked at this as a second career. Many of the principles of floral ranging were very close to the principle of interior design: color, function, form. We're very proud of all the work we do. When Coordinated Health hosted the group Boston at Musikfest, we actually created a flower arrangement that was a replica of the cover of one of their albums. We've also done work for the St. Luke's Auxiliary Ball and we also have done a huge heart that was nothing but roses for someone to make a special&nbsp;proposal. New Tripoli Bank has worked with&nbsp;us on every problem or situation with a human&nbsp;touch. During the pandemic especially, when we weren't delivering flowers, New Tripoli Bank were instrumental in helping us work through the incredibly chaotic period of the Paycheck Protection Program. Bob Kern worked with us on a daily basis and we were approved for the loan through New Tripoli Bank, which we appreciated greatly. We worked with many other banks throughout the Lehigh Valley who got sold to larger banks and became much more impersonal. We do appreciate working with New Tripoli Bank because you can speak to a human that actually lives and works in the Lehigh Valley and can understand your problems and the area itself.</p>

<p>My name is Maria Medei and our business is Casilio Concrete. We're a family-owned business that's been in business for 83 years and we deliver and manufacture ready-mix concrete. We also have a trucking company that supplies us with all our raw materials and does stone deliveries for our crushing plant that recycles concrete block brick and stone. I started working on and off in the business in summers when I was in high school and through college. I came back to the business full time in 1981 and just worked my way up the ranks into the management part of our business. Before I started in management, my aunt was here running our business for a long time, along with my dad and my uncle, so there's always been a pretty dominant female in our business. We recently finished Lehigh University Science Center. We also did the Lehigh University dormitories. We did the Coplay Bridge a few years ago. We also did Werner Trucking, which was a very unique project in that the outside was all paved in about 15,000 yards of concrete. New Tripoli Bank has helped us a lot in accomplishing our business goals. We recently purchased a new plant in Nazareth. It was a turnkey plant, so we wanted to get in and running right away and I can't say enough of how helpful Bob was to get that done in such a timely manner. It was probably a three-week process from once we got our number until we were able to run and make&nbsp;concrete. When we buy something for a business it's not cheap. (laughs) Our trucks are expensive, our equipment we need is expensive, and New Tripoli Bank has always been there. We did about two or three months ago have a large check that came through that was a fraudulent check. In the morning, when I was looking at our account, I saw the check and I called Sundra right away and they closed our account. They helped us get our new account set up very quickly. I was worried that this was going to be a hard process but they made it so simple. They took care of that right away, it was just such an easy process for something that I thought was going to be so hard to resolve. We do probably 99.9% of our banking remotely. First thing I do when I turn my computer on in the morning is go on my bank accounts and I look at all of our&nbsp;accounts. I can pay all our loans online, I can transfer money online, I can pay bills online. It's a very efficient process to use the remote deposit, it's faster than writing up a deposit&nbsp;slip. Every day we're running checks through the machine, depositing them into the bank and they're there the next morning. I just think that the bank has helped our business grow. We had worked through some hard times a couple years ago and the bank was right there for us and I don't think we could have done it as well as we have without the help of New Tripoli Bank.</p>

<p>Hi, my name is Jill Wenz. I'm the owner of Wenz Tax &amp; Financial Services here in Allentown. I operate the business with my husband and two children. We also have offices in Palmerton and Easton. We do individual and business taxes, tax planning, bookkeeping, and payroll. I was looking for a bank that would provide me with great service and I liked the fact that New Tripoli Bank had all the mobile banking features and the remote deposit scanner. I also like the fact that New Tripoli Bank wasn't charging me per item fees for checks. I have a really high volume of transactions during tax season, so that was a big factor. We also invest in real estate and we liked the fact that we had a local lender that we could work with directly. I was tired of the bank I was using constantly being bought out and having to change all my checks and routing numbers, so when I started looking for a bank I wanted a bank that was going to give me great service and be around. Everyone at the bank has been so helpful and so kind whenever we've come in to open an account. Any time we have a question, we get answers immediately. I usually tell people to use New Tripoli Bank because they're easy to work with.</p>

<p>My name is Kyra Hendricks and I'm from Kempton, Pennsylvania, and I am the owner of Wanamakers General Store, which is an old-fashioned general store and market that was built in the late&nbsp;1800's.</p>
<p>We offer everything from fresh locally made sandwiches, salads, we have a full deli, bulk foods, organic produce, locally-roasted coffee, interesting locally made crafts, toys; it's a one stop shop for convenience store items. Basically, you name it and we try and carry it. I'm the fifth owner of the store. I came to New Tripoli Bank when I wanted to buy out my former business partner and they helped me to get a mortgage for the business and the&nbsp;building.</p>
<p>Because we already did a lot of our business banking through New Tripoli, they were very familiar with our business practices and that made getting a mortgage through them a relatively simple and painless process.</p>
<p>Our philosophy at Wanamakers has always been to source things locally and then kind of move out from there, so it just made sense to also go with a local&nbsp;bank. What I like about going to New Tripoli is everybody in the lobby is very friendly and&nbsp;anytime I need any supplies, such as checks, or I'm kind of scrambling to get something&nbsp;accomplished, everybody goes out of their way to help me achieve that. I can always get a hold of a&nbsp;person if I need to talk to somebody in real time. If I have any issues with anything, it's resolved within a very short period of time. Again, it's a small town business and it just has that small town community feel.</p>

<p>Hi, my name is Sam Wood. My partner Bob Smith and myself both own Smitty's&nbsp;Maintenance &amp; Repair in Palmer, Pennsylvania. We do full collision, we work with all insurance companies, we also have a separate shop which is a complete mechanical repair. Anything from a tire repair to an engine replacement; we can pretty much handle anything that happens either in or outside your automotive needs. <br />BOB: My name is Bob Smith, my partner Sam Wood and I have owned Smitty's Maintenance &amp; Collision. We've been in business for over 41 years; we've dealt with New Tripoli Bank for about 16 years now. We both started this business with the motto that &ldquo;if we do good work for a fair price and keep up with technology today, that we'd always be busy&rdquo; and we're very fortunate we're busy all the time.<br />SAM: We were with a big bank before. Every time that we needed to do any improvements in our business, it was always a big ordeal going through the loan process.<br />BOB: When we came into this business, we knew that technology was changing and it seemed like we needed somebody that would listen to us and understand where we were and New Tripoli Bank really made that fit. <br />SAM: My partner Bob and myself were talking about doing some major improvements to our body shop business, which included all kinds of new equipment, that will take us into the next 10 years or so in this business.<br />BOB: Cars are changing every single day and it was going to require a fair amount of financing to do that and we went to New Tripoli and talked to them about that. They were very accommodating on getting us where we needed to be quickly and easily. <br />SAM: I was talking with Dave about it and he told me &lsquo;we like the direction your business is going so let's move forward with it.&rsquo; I got a hold of Dave Sherwin, Bob and I sat down and talked with them about what we needed and where we wanted to take this business. As simple as that we were moving forward with the whole project. It was the most pain-free experience we've had.<br />BOB: Small business still needs to have that connection to the people they're dealing with and I really feel that both us and New Tripoli Bank strive to have that personal touch and that's what really makes the process so easy to work with. <br />SAM: I&rsquo;ve recommended New Tripoli Bank to multiple different businesses that I had dealings with. They do whatever it takes to move your business forward. They absolutely are vested in your business, they're there for you all the time.</p>

<p>Hello, my name is Amir Ammary. I'm the owner of A. A. Welding and Fabrication, LLC. We specialize in welding, concrete and excavation. I've been a customer of New Tripoli Bank for about 15 years and also been a commercial customer of theirs for about seven years. What we specialize in is welding &mdash; that can be anywhere between residential, with railings and arches &mdash; and then we get in the commercial line where we work on heavy equipment &mdash; shoring, I-beam work, structural work &mdash; and then going into industrial stuff, into conveyors, and then we get in the concrete, where we do a lot of flat work, street work, storm drain work, and then the excavation &mdash; just obviously digging out for trenching, basements and land clearing. My family has been dealing with New Tripoli Bank for at least 10 years before I started an account there. Even though I looked into other banking, it's just having the simple connection to be able to call John Hemak on the fly and say, "Hey, I need such-and-such," and he's going, "Okay, I will look into it," and it comes back within a day or two. Have an answer, have a plan. The ease of actually having the lender really guide me through the steps. New Tripoli is just easy for me. It's really nice to have a small bank versus a big bank. They kind of you know when you walk in. You're able to be acknowledged by your first name versus just a number on the board.</p>

<p>My name is Jarrett Seng, I'm the owner and founder of Raceseng, Inc. We're a small father-and-son startup business. We design and manufacture aftermarket performance products for a variety of European and Japanese sports cars. I'm a product designer by trade, my dad is a manufacturing engineer, and we brought both of our talents together and we formed a company called Raceseng that takes our personal heritage of racing together with our passions and that's what makes up the Raceseng brand.<br /><br />So early on in our business we needed money to help grow the business. We were making all the parts by hand after hours. There was very tedious work to do and we weren't able to grow because of how much labor we had to put into every product that we made and shipped. I couldn't find anybody that would be willing to give two guys working out of their backyard any money to start or help the business. Somebody referenced New Tripoli Bank to me. I went in with a bunch of our parts and met with the commercial lender there, showed her what we did and told her our story. That led into now the bank financing four C&amp;C machines for us and literally helping our little backyard two-car garage startup go to the space that we're in today. That led into now a 14-year relationship of working with New Tripoli Bank.<br /><br />From one small business owner to another, New Tripoli Bank is there to help small business owners. The bank has helped me through every phase of a question that I've had, they're an email away, it's a completely different relationship when you're working with somebody local like New Tripoli Bank. They truly are a partner that you need to help grow a small business.</p>

<p>My name is Jeremy Rex, I&rsquo;m 39 years old, I have lived in the Lehigh Valley my entire life. I grew up on a local farm run by my parents. This house was built by my great grandfather in 1953. When the opportunity presented itself for me to have the option of buying my family&rsquo;s home next to my parents, I took into consideration that I&rsquo;ve been a loyal customer to New Tripoli Bank ever since I was born. Working with the mortgage department at New Tripoli Bank was a very easy process and they worked with me, going through several different options of mortgage to purchase my family house, and keep it in the family for maybe one, two more generations. And it means a lot to me that I had the opportunity to be able to buy this property that was built by my great grandfather.</p>