Comfort Air Cooling & Heating celebrates grand opening

Comfort Air Cooling & Heating celebrated their grand opening Tuesday evening with a big celebration that included family, friends, employees, customers, other businesses, Warner Robins Mayor Randy Toms and Robins Regional Chamber of Commerce members.

To kick off the event, Robins Regional Chamber President/CEO April Bragg and Toms congratulated owner Bernie Joerger and his family on opening up their business in Houston County.

Joerger, almost in tears, thanked everyone for attending and Warner Robins for providing a lot of opportunities for them. During the event, there were door prizes, music by DJ Smooth with 97.9 WIBB, entertainment by Willie Raines (known as the “Human Freight Train”) and food, including ice cream by Smallcakes.

Comfort Air, located at 1256 S. Houston Lake Road, is a family owned and operated company specializing in all residential and commercial cooling and heating needs for middle Georgia. Joerger said he and Pete Lamendola are partners on the property, noting they plan to do other things on the property in the near future.

Joerger said he has been in business for 20 years, operating for 10 years out of their home in Bonaire. For the first 10 years, he ran his business while in Philadelphia. He said he and his family moved here 10 years ago.

A military veteran, Joerger said a brother of his retired here, which he and his family would sometimes visit. He sold his company up north in 2010 and they were fully open for business here in 2007. He said they were looking for years for a building to open their business and finally the opportunity came when his friend asked if he wanted to buy the building on Houston Lake Road.

“It was a blessing in disguise,” Joerger said. “It just opened up a gate for us. We’re so thankful for it.”

He added, “It’s tough to run a business out of your house when you don’t have exposure,” he said. “This gave us the credibility that I needed for the last 20 years.”

He said moving from Philadelphia to here has been unbelievable. He and his wife, Betty, raised their children, Dominic, 14, Kennedy, 16, and Elizabeth, 26, here and they have almost 30 rental properties.

They have been operating out of their new building on Houston Lake Road since Nov. 4, 2016.

“Warner Robins, the south, has opened up so many opportunities for us. We’re so blessed and very thankful. It’s a wonderful place to live,” Joerger said.

Growing up in this industry with a mechanical family and following behind his uncle, he said he has a passion for this type of work.

“I want to bring back the old school mentality customer service,” he said. “I built the company on my name.”

Joerger said he runs the day-to-day operations at Comfort Air. Their slogan is: “If you have a problem or need a repair, just pick up the phone and call Comfort Air.”

“There’s not a time that I won’t answer the phone,” Joerger said. “I think there should be more of that. People want to talk to the owners of the company. So, I stay in touch with the people who put me where I’m at today. I stay in touch with them on a day-to-day basis because they count on me to provide that service and to me, there’s no other way to give them that kind of service than to give it to them yourself.”

He said they base their business on that, which is a great industry to be in.

“Loyalty and honesty in this industry is critical because it goes a long way,” Joerger said.

With exposure mostly coming from word of mouth and now social media, he said business has picked up even more. He said they even have people driving by the business honking their horns because of their saying: “Let us know you’re driving by and give us a honk.”

“It’s pretty exciting,” Joerger said.

For more information, visit the Comfort Air Cooling & Heating Facebook page or website or call Joerger at (478) 225-9830.

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