It's All in the Family with Simon Plumbing

For the past four decades, when Oak Forest residents have had plumbing emergencies, they have dialed the same seven digits—687-3378—the number for Simon Plumbing and Sewer since 1968.

Beneath the surface of this company, the foundation is a hard-working family committed to the city of Oak Forest.

The founder of the company, Rich Simon, serves as alderman for city's 2nd Ward.  At the end of his current term, he will have served 30 years as a community leader.

The current president of the company, Todd Simon, is the alderman's son and a city plumbing inspector. He also doubles as the president of the Oak Forest Baseball Association.

Simon Plumbing began as Simple Simon Home Maintenance.  The original owners were Rich and his brothers, Art and Elmer. 

"My two brothers and I, we did everything," said Rich.  "Not  just plumbing, but electric, carpentry, whatever was needed, we did it.  Eventually my brothers moved on, and for a while, one of my nephews worked with me."

After graduating from Eastern Illinois University, Todd joined the company full-time.  "When Todd came on after college, I thought that was great," said Rich.  "It's nice for a father to be able to hand something down to his son."

It was then that they began to focus exclusively on plumbing. 

"Todd got his state license and turned the company into Simon Plumbing," said Rich.  "It's been a pleasure to see what Todd has done with the company."

When residents make the call for emergency service, they will likely be talking to Becky Simon, Rich's wife, and Todd's mother.  "I'm like the Girl Friday," says Becky.  "I answer the phone, help with the scheduling, and do a lot of the paperwork.  Pretty much anything Todd needs me to do."

"She's the real boss of the company," said Todd.  "She was off for nine months while being treated for cancer last year, and we had a very hard time doing her work.  She really does a lot around here."

Becky is winning her battle with cancer, having recently finished chemotherapy treatments.  "I go back in nine weeks," she said.  "Everything is looking good."

Todd has two plumbers who help him in the field.  Jason Lovelace, who works full-time, and Matt Peska, who works part-ttime. Both men have been working for the company for several years. 

"I've always preferred working for smaller companies," said Lovelace, "and they treat me very well here."

Rich, who is semi-retired, still makes his contributions to the company.  "He's mostly a consultant," said Todd.  "He keeps pretty busy with his duties as alderman and with veteran's affairs, but he still does a lot of the excavating work when it comes up."

The company, which services not just Oak Forest, but all the surrounding towns, focuses mostly on repair service.  "Right now service repair is all there is," said Todd.  "Our customers are about 70 percent residential, and 30 percent commercial.  More than 80 percent of our business comes from referrals.  It's nice to know people trust us enough to refer us."

They also offer service on new construction projects, but there hasn't been much of that lately.  "New construction has dropped off the face of the earth," said Todd.  This has also affected his duties as a city plumbing inspector.

"We've had one or two inspections in the last few months," said Todd.  "We used to be pretty busy."  Todd says the nature of inspections has changed in the last few years.  "Due the hard financial times, people are trying to do their own work.  The Mayor (Hank Kuspa) wants to help people do what they have to do, so try to give guidance.  We don't teach plumbing classes, but we help as much as we can."