CENTRALIA PROPANE SUPPLIES COMMUNITY OVER 45 YEARS
Centralia Propane has been a constant source of community spirit and quality customer service since opening its doors in 1978.
Founded by Roger Cox, who opened the operation after 18 years in the industry, Centralia Propane managed to outlive all the local competition, becoming the community’s premiere source of propane.
“When Roger started the company, we were the third propane company in Centralia. The other two got older and sold out to other businesses,” said Rhonda Morris, Cox’s successor, who began with Centralia Propane since 1989. “For the last few years, we have been the only one in Centralia, but there has been a lot of competition from Mt. Vernon and other areas.”
Still housed at its 996 Walnut Hill Road location, where it has remained since Cox opened the business, Centralia Propane employs a staff of six full-time employees and three part-time employees, several of which have been with the company for some time.
Though much has changed in the propane industry since she began with the company, Morris said the Centralia Propane mission and attention to customer service will never wane.
“We deliver propane, to houses, to industry. We also deliver bottled gas to people’s houses. We will fill bottles there and at the plant a couple times a day,” Morris explained. We’ve got a lot more customers now, but they use a lot less [propane]. When Roger started the company, he said a good customer was between 1,000 and 1,200 gallons a year. Now if we get a customer that burns 600 [gallons], we’re lucky.”
Morris said Centralia Propane serves a client base spanning roughly 30 miles in each direction, with customers as far out as Bartelso and Orchardville.
“We probably cover a 30-mile circle, but there are a few places that are a little farther. We’ll go to Bartelso and out toward Orchardville. We’ll go north of Salem, north of Mt. Vernon,” Morris explained. “We feel we can offer better service the more condensed we are. When you are wanting the drivers to get between 18 and 20 deliveries a day, its not a very good route if have the customers too spread out.”
In addition to providing four-plus decades of service to Centralia and its surrounding areas, Centralia Propane has also championed many local events, most notably the Centralia Balloon Fest.
A sponsor of the Balloon Fest since its inaugural year, where it was the only participating propane service, Centralia Propane has continued to support the event in the three decades that followed.
“Roger was the first person [to provide propane] for the Balloon Fest. We only took one truck, and he filled [the balloons],” Morris recalled. “The first year there were only six balloons there, but the second year there were more. It got to where there were so many balloons, we didn’t have enough people to do it, and we had to ask other people to help us out.”
When asked what the future holds, Morris said she expects no major changes, insisting Centralia Propane will continue to be a staple of the community for years to come.
Centralia Propane
996 Walnut Hill Road, Centralia IL
618-532-9254
centraliapropane@yahoo.com
