Centerville Enterprises is thriving, growing and expanding into new markets and new services

After a career in nursing, Jolee Younkin embraced her lifelong love for landscaping to start Centerville Enterprises. Determined to earn respect in a male-dominated industry, she worked with Startup Alleghenies and JARI on a rigorous plan for gaining the knowledge and credibility to match her passion. “I can’t say enough positive things about how they helped and influenced me on this journey,” she said.

Now, thanks to her continued commitment and work ethic, and her dedicated, hard-working crews, Centerville Enterprises is thriving, growing and expanding. Jolee’s shared some updates about the company’s new endeavors as landscaping season gets underway.

“We are now working with the renewable energy sectors providing landscaping, site reclamation, and construction services,” said Jolee, president and owner.

In the summer of 2023, Centerville provided maintenance services for an 80-acre solar site, installing new access roads, stone, soil, drainage swales and seeding and providing construction site clean-up, site-restoration, and many other items to help close out the project.

“I enjoy working with the private energy sector and hope to keep expanding our services into this quickly growing industry,” Jolee said. “There are so many clean energy options on the forefront. I’m proud to be a small part of this big step forward.”

She credited her team for helping the company to successfully transition into this new space. “I have amazing crews who worked in 90-degree temps through the hottest months of summer providing on-time and on-budget services with the highest quality. I am so proud of them and the work we provide. I could never do it without the solid team of people I have around me,” Jolee said.

In the meantime, Centerville continues to serve the community, completing residential and commercial products as well as state roadway projects. “We never forget where we come from and love serving our hometown,” Jolee said.

Centerville also continues to provide commercial cleaning year-round to many of our local businesses, Air BNB properties and vacation homes. “Our commercial cleaning teams now provide services to Somerset, Cambria, Westmoreland, and Fayette counties,” Jolee said. “Our cleaners focus on every detail and take great pride in a complete, comprehensive, and flawless presentation. We understand that providing excellent service allows the businesses who contract with us to focus on what they do best,” she said.

New service available

Jolee also shared that while Centerville has been providing flatwork concrete services for state and federal contracts, they are now able to offer some of these services to commercial, municipal, small business and residential clients. Some of these services include stormwater management, inlets, curb and sidewalks, driveways and concrete pads.

“Our crews have 25+ years of experience providing these services to state and federal agencies with strict regulations and guidelines. We are confident that we can expand this exceptional service to other types of customers,” she said.

Jolee has invested a lot of time into achieving important certifications to enhance her firm’s credibility, including WBE (Women’s Business Enterprise), WOSB (Women Owned Small Business), SDB (Small Diverse Business), Small Business (SB), and HUBzone certifications. Recently Centerville added its DBE (Disadvantaged Business Enterprise) certification in three states, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Maryland, and became a pre-qualified subcontractor with 20+ work class codes for PennDOT and the West Virginia Department of Highway.

“We are beyond proud to represent Somerset County as a strong rural small business among many other success stories from our area,” Jolee said. “Somerset County has supported us and shown us so much love. We wouldn’t be here without the support of our community, other small businesses, and the hard-working people we employ from our hometown area.”

Jolee said Centerville Enterprises isn’t done growing yet. She said there’s more big news on the horizon and she can’t wait to share it with Somerset County. Stay tuned!

Startup Alleghenies helps startup and emerging small businesses succeed by providing free coaching to entrepreneurs in Bedford, Blair, Cambria, Fulton, Huntingdon and Somerset counties. To access personal, one-on-one support from a coach in your county, including guidance, resources, tools and networking opportunities, sign up at startupalleghenies.com.