May 12, 2016 at 4:13 p.m.
Tried and True engine repair program's first year with Youth Service Bureau
Tried and True engine repair program's first year with Youth Service Bureau
Through the “Tried and True” small engine program, a professional mechanic from Chisago County has guided local teens studying and diagnosing problems with motors since late February at a shop in Wyoming.
The class has met after school Tuesdays and Thursdays for a total of six hours weekly (3:30 to 6:30 p.m.), where mechanic Jim Goserud has taught participating students about diagnostic work and engine repair.
When a piece of equipment they have examined with Goserud can be repaired, the youth have also been active apprentices in ordering replacement parts from outside suppliers.
“We want (the youth) to learn how to be good employees,” said Matt Howard, from LAYSB.
Goserud, who runs his own shop in Stacy, connected with the Youth Service Bureau for the program through an area business networking club. He is a native of Arden Hills who did some engine work on lawn mowers as a teen when he was employed at a service station.
The mechanic says he was 12 and at home when he repaired his first small engine for transfer into a “chug,” or a go-kart. “It intrigued me, what an engine looks like inside, what made it work. I took it apart, and was fascinated by it,” said Goserud. “That’s what launched my career. I went to trade school for automotive (repair).”
When another area professional in his networking club suggested the mechanic to LAYSB staff for leading the Tried and True program, “right away I had an interest,” Goserud said. “It was always something I’d thought about, to teach this.
“I teach (the students) theory of how a motor works. You need to understand how it works before going through a diagnosis,” he added.
LAYSB promoted the program for nearly three months before Goserud’s first session. Community residents who were alerted by those announcements donated nearly 60 machines and engines for the program; mowers, snowblowers, a chainsaw, garden tiller, hedge trimmer and leaf blower. Howard said they will accept machines as large as a riding mower, but they will reject motorcycles, ATVs and other vehicles that would require title transfers.
Goserud has found with his students that many of the machines could be repaired, while other equipment has been valuable for quality parts which could be used in different machines.
LAYSB acquired its start-up costs for the program through support of grants from the Initiative Foundation, based in Little Falls, and the Sundance Family Foundation, of St. Paul.
The bureau has been funding the program further through sales of the machines that the Tried and True team has repaired.
Goserud, Howard and other program leaders aim to price the goods competitively. Howard made final arrangements to buy a repaired mower for his own home use April 28. “It would cost me more to take (my old mower) in for repair,” said Howard. “I know what I’m getting here. I believe in the program, and I want to support it.”
Howard invites the public to phone him at 651-464-3685 or email [email protected] for more about the Tried and True program, although he and Goserud with the students are also hosting a public open house Thursday, May 19. Guests that day can learn more about the work and browse among the repaired machines up for sale. They may also bring machines to be donated.
Hours for the May 19 open house are 3 to 6 p.m. The shop is at 27540 Forest Blvd. in Wyoming.
The program will continue into the summer, and youth applications are available through the LAYSB website at web.ysblakesarea.org.
“We are really looking for kids that have an interest and aptitude for it,” said Howard.
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