Colfax to welcome a new car wash soon

COLFAX — The time is almost here when Colfax has a car wash once again.

Lifelong Colfax resident Mike Talsma hopes to have his new car washing business open for customer use by the end of November if weather cooperates.

The car wash in construction located on West State Street next to the Casey’s General Store will offer an automatic wash and two manual stations.

Costs of the self-service automatic station will range between $7 and $10, according to Talsma.

“It’s all self-service, so there won’t be anyone here full-time. I’ll stop by a couple times a day to make sure it’s nice and clean, but most of them don’t (have full-time workers),” he said. “Unless they are really big they might, but one this size there shouldn’t be someone here full-time.”

Since the most recent closures of car washes in Colfax — one at the location of the current fire station and the other near Interstate 80, the town has been without a working facility for nearly two years and Talsma saw the opportunity to bring the service back to the community.

"I heard a lot of people talk and a good friend of mine here in town is the one who sells car wash equipment," he said. "I was looking for an investment in the community instead of going out of town."

Talsma lives south of town, but as a homebuilder he travels a lot and usually ends up washing his car in Altoona, Newton or wherever he’s working that day. Having a car wash in Colfax not only will benefit other members of this community, but will make him a customer of his own business as well.

Talsma is familiar with running a business as he currently owns his own homebuilding business and was a part owner in Prairie City’s Firm Foundations — a foundation company that was sold last year. However, owning a car wash presents new obstacles that the Colfax resident has been overcoming.

“I’m learning a lot. Maintenance is my biggest thing down the road and then the size of it. A lot of the car washes I pull into fits a full size pickup, but it’s small so you can’t move around,” Talsma said. “My full size pickup will be able to go through this automatic where most of them can’t. The older car washes, they weren’t big enough. But maintenance is the biggest issue and that’s why it’s an all vinyl building and no painting.”

It could still be a couple more months until the building is ready for customers as more equipment needs to be installed, cement needs to be poured and the building’s electrical system has to be connected. But Talsma has been trying to take off days each week to focus on the property and has been getting help from his friend and brother as well.

Talsma has been working on the lot since tearing down an old trailer on the property last fall and preparing the foundation for the building. However he hopes it will all be worth the effort and people will come to use it once it opens for business.

“The word around here, everybody’s excited about it. Hopefully the excitement lasts a while after I’m open. That’s my biggest thing,” Talsma said. “Hopefully it’ll all work with the expense I’m putting into it. But everybody asks me about it. Wherever I go people ask when it’s going to be open.”

Contact Alex Olp at
515-674-3591 or
aolp@jaspercountytribune.com