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Halco Founder Reflects on 41 Years of Growth By Mar jor ie O l d s
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rowing up in Phelps, New York, one of Hal Smith’s church youth leaders noticed Hal’s interest in fixing things. From the time Hal was 12 years old, he would accompany Pat Sattaneo on weekends and vacations, doing plumbing work for customers in the Geneva-Phelps area, many of whom were professors at Cornell’s Experimental Station in Geneva, a few miles away from Phelps in Ontario County. Now, after 41 years of Hal’s successful heating, plumbing, cooling and energy efficiency business, the founder and director of Halco looks back on that unusual apprenticeship as a blessing to launch him to become the person he was meant to be. In high school Hal took two years of plumbing, heating, and electrical classes, and upon graduation spent four years with a plumbing, heating and air-conditioning company in Canandaigua. During those four years, Hal also took related classes about 30 miles from home, at Monroe County Community College.
Hal Smith, Halco Home Solutions CEO. (Photo: Provided/Kelsey Smith)
With encouragement from Pat Sattaneo, in 1984 at 22 years of age, Hal Smith started Halco, this region’s prominent and popular energy efficiency company, operating in 23 counties in the SyracuseRochester-Ithaca area. Launching Halco
The newly completed addition at Halco Home Solutions headquarters expands workspace to support continued growth. (Photo: Provided/Kelsey Wright)
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Hal Smith, second from right, networking at the 2025 NY-GEO Event, held in Saratoga Springs. (Photo: Provided/Rachel Collet, NY-GEO)
About 25 years ago, Hal became interas a solo practitioner business 41 years ested in geothermal energy, which some ago, Hal now employs 185 men and customers explore and utilize for their women, with 4 offices in Phelps, Ithaca, electrical heating and cooling systems. Rochester, and Syracuse. With such sucThat was followed by expansion to include cessful expansion of Halco, Hal explains heat pumps and solar energy systems, all he does a zoom call with each departbased upon insulation and air sealing, so ment once a week at 7 AM. Everyone in that all heating and cooling can be done as Halco is kept up-to-date. efficiently as possible Originally setting up shop in a large, “Halco partners with area BOCES and tidy barn on County Rd. #6 in Phelps, accepts high schoolers into internships Hal did plenty of 100 hour weeks as he with us,” he said. “Upon graduation, young served customers’ heat, plumbing and people can join the Halco On-The-Jobelectrical needs. Once established, Hal Training-Program, which once successjoined the Fingerlakes Workforce Investfully completed, leads to a 5 year NYS ment Board for Wayne, Ontario, Seneca, Apprenticeship program.” and Yates Counties, serving as chair of (mzo: Recently, Zutiyah Graham comthis innovative partnership for many pleted the Ithaca Energy Warriors program, years. created by this author and admirably led “For the past 17 years we have hosted for 5 years by local hero Aloja Airewele. an annual program, ‘Fingerlakes Works With Its Hands!’ We host 700 high school “Zoo” returned to the Energy Warriors class not long ago and proudly announced her students at an all-day Trade event,” he said. “Activities are varied with backhoes, entry into the Halco workforce to the current Energy Warriors students. We cheer excavators, soldering, brazing carpentry her on!) demonstrations and electrical demonMany Halco customers have noted strations…More recently we moved the the across-the-board high quality of the event to the Fingerlakes Community College in Canandaigua, about 12 miles from Phelps.” Contin u ed on Page 17