Former Columbia Basin Herald joins husband in local business
Jennifer Zickler opening gifts in thanks for her 14 years of service with the Columbia Basin Herald. Zickler now works with her husband at Bishop Spray Service where he is part owner.
MOSES LAKE — Former bookkeper of Columbia Basin Herald has started working for Bishop Spray Services, where her husband, Pat Zickler, is part owner.
Columbia Basin Herald ran this story on his business in March:
MOSES LAKE -- A local business is shifting gears to new and decentralized ownership.
Dan Bishop, owner of Bishop Spray Service, recently sold the business to employees, who split it into three different territories. Norm Lancaster purchased the Moses Lake portion, while Pat Zickler bought the Quincy-Ephrata section and James and Katrina Keithley bought the part from Royal City south to the Oregon border.
It’s a new chapter for a business that started when Dan Bishop’s dad Leroy retired from the U.S. Army and needed something to do. Leroy Bishop started his business with one truck, a 1972 flatbed purchased from a local business. “I still have the original truck, too,” Dan Bishop said.
The business grew, Bishop said, until he had — well, he doesn't know how many trucks he has. “I don’t remember,” he said, but he knows it’s some-where around nine or 10.
Leroy Bishop concentrated on the Moses Lake area, but over time the business expanded along with the fleet, to Ephrata and Quincy, Royal City and Othello, and points south and east. Leroy Bishop retired in 1991, and his son bought the business in 1992.
“My dad worked for me for two, three years,” Dan Bishop remembered. Dad set his own schedule. If it wasn't done by noon, he just passed it on to the rest of the crew.
Bishop Spray Service is all about pest control, whether the pest is invasive weeds or insects. “Commercial, industrial, and residential weed, insect and pest control,” Bishop said. Treatment can start even before the bad bugs and weeds emerge, Pat Zickler said, and lasts until the return of cold weather in the fall.
Some pests are more pestiferous than others. “The largest amount of our business is spiders,” Norm Lancaster said of Moses Lake.
A good bug-and-weed company will make sure they know the problem before proceeding, James Keithley said. “Someone that listens,” Katrina Keithley said.
And a good company will advise a business or homeowner of their options, including things they can do on their own, Katrina Keithley said. “You shouldn't get a sales pitch right out of the gate,” James Keithley said.
People who want to contact Bishop Spray Service can contact Keithley at 509-989-9544, Zickler at 509-760-4958 or Lancaster at 509-766-2847.