The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAI T SBURG - When Robert Potolicchio closed Poto's Small Engine Repair for health reasons earlier this year - thanking his many loyal customers for all the business they gave him over the years - the last mechanic left standing disappeared from Main Street. The closest place you could take your lawn mower (let alone your car or truck) was Dayton.

But wait! The dust hasn't settled yet.

Troy McCambridge, once a Mr. Fix It on Main Street himself, wants to bring back the convenience of local engine repair to Waitsburg and instead of expecting his customers to come to him, he'll come to them.

"I'm all tooled up," he said about his '89 1-ton Dodge RAM fully equipped with automotive tools, a welder generator and torch, air compressor and much more. "I'm going to be mobile here pretty soon."

Potolicchio, who closed his business because of health reasons, said he expects demand to be strong for McCambridge's services and has committed to warehousing

$7,000 in leftover parts inventory for the new business, Touchet Valley Repair.

"I hope he can pick up where I left off," Potolicchio said. "There was quite a bit of business there for me. There's a real need for it."

Aside from lawnmowers, Potolicchio spent the last decade fixing tractors, weed eaters, pumps and generator - all with engines with fewer than 35 horsepower. He has already made some referrals to McCambridge.

Once fully up and running, the former Navy aircraft mechanic will offer small engine, car, truck and tractor repairs. At $45 per hour, he'll provide roadside service using his Dodge and if you drop the patient at his home and small shop at 610 W. Second (Highway 124), he'll charge only $28 per hour.

"That's a fair rate," Potolicchio said. "He's a good mechanic."

A certified welder and small engines mechanic, Mc- Cambridge does warn that he won't be set up for very sophisticated car repairs, particularly on newer cars, but replacing a belt or an alternator won't be a problem.

"I could rebuild an engine but I don't have a drive-in shop," McCambridge said. "All people have to do is pick up the phone and call. If I can't do it, I'll tell them."

McCambridge, who grew up in Phoenix and moved to Waitsburg in 1986, when his dad, Lynn, bought the hardware store, got his mechanics education at Walla Walla Community College and used to fix small engine at the back of the elder Mc- Cambridge's business.

Years ago, he bought the welding shop where Potolicchio had his operation until recently and "was pretty busy for while," making fuel tanks, slip tanks and other items local farmers needed in addition to fixing small engines, tractors, trucks and cars.

But in 1998, he hit the road as a welder, mechanic and operator on road construction crews covering 11 western states. Most of that period, he worked for Valentine Surfacing based in Vancouver, Wash., then for Arizona Pavement Profiling.

He looked for work after he returned in 2009, but had a tough time finding a food job. When Poto's closed, McCambridge saw an opportunity.

A big NASCAR fan, he said he enjoys being in one place for a while, living in the house he's rented from his father for the past 11 years.

"It's nice to watch the grass grow," he said.