[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 5]
[Senate]
[Pages 6695-6697]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 ______
                                 

                 RECOGNIZING JOHN T. CYR AND SONS, INC.

 Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, today I wish to offer my 
congratulations to John T. Cyr and Sons, Inc., on its 100th 
anniversary. This outstanding Maine company demonstrates why family 
businesses are so important to our Nation's economy and to communities 
in every State. The determination and vision that led to a century of 
success define America's entrepreneurial spirit.
  Sometime around 1903, John Thomas Cyr moved his family from Caribou, 
ME--my hometown--to Old Town, near Bangor, where he found work in a 
lumber mill. Nine years later, in 1912, at the age of 51, John T. Cyr 
struck out on his own. Joined by his son, Joseph, they started a livery 
stable and delivery business.
  What began with horses, buggies, and wagons is today a thriving 
enterprise of 22 luxury motor coaches, 200 school buses, and nearly 250 
employees. A company that got its start hauling lumber for a local 
canoe factory now serves 17 school districts across Maine with an 
exemplary safety record. They offer tours throughout the United States 
and Canada from New York City at Christmas to Washington, D.C., in 
cherry blossom season. As a native of Aroostook County, I know how 
valuable their daily intercity service is to the towns and cities of 
northern Maine.
  Handed down and nurtured through the generations, this is a true 
family business, owned and operated by the founder's grandson, Joe Cyr, 
joined by his brother, Pete, son Mike, and daughter Becky.
  Their remarkable story of growth, of meeting challenges, and of 
delivering value was expertly told in a recent article in Maine Trails 
magazine. I would like to complement that account with my personal 
observations.
  Before coming to the Senate, I worked at Husson University in Bangor, 
where I had the pleasure of getting to know Joe Cyr, Class of 1962, and 
his wonderful wife, Sue, Class of 1965. Joe has been a longtime member 
of the Husson Board of Trustees, and Sue been a volunteer supporter of 
uncommon energy. Joe and Sue's generosity to Husson includes 
significant gifts to athletic programs, a new home for the university 
president, the annual fund, and most recently, the new Cyr Alumni 
Center. The countless ways they

[[Page 6696]]

serve--from the Boys Scouts and the Y to St. Joseph Hospital--touch 
people of all ages.
  People throughout Maine are fortunate to have such a family as the 
Cyrs, but I am especially lucky--my summer camp on Cold Stream Pond is 
just down the road from theirs. As much as I cherish our time together, 
having dinner, playing cards, and enjoying the beautiful Maine summer 
evenings, I cherish even more being in the presence of those who give 
so much to others and who see the act of giving as the greatest reward. 
I am delighted to extend my congratulations to the Cyr family in their 
business's centennial year and to thank them for their contributions to 
the State of Maine.
  I ask that the Maine Trails article be printed in the Record.
  The article follows.

                [From the Maine Trails, Feb./Mar. 2012]

                        Driving Through History

                          (By Kathryn Buxton)


  From horse drawn wagons to modern coaches and school buses, Cyr Bus 
 Line travels through history into an elite club of 100-year-old Maine 
                               businesses

       It's midday at Cyr Bus Line, and about a dozen drivers in 
     black company jackets are gathered, waiting for the next wave 
     of activity to begin. That's when the company's fleet of 
     school buses head out to pick up students for the trip home 
     from Old Town's high school, middle school and three 
     elementary schools. A fresh layer of snow covers the ground 
     outside, and everyone is alert and ready to get to work. 
     Outside, a coach bus pulls in to the lot, returning from its 
     daily run to Aroostook County. The bus will be washed down 
     and ready for its 6 p.m. departure from downtown Bangor.
       It is a scene that has played out countless times over the 
     past 100 years since John T. Cyr and his son Joseph founded 
     the company on South Water Street in 1912. Previous to that, 
     John had been working for the Jordan Lumber Company in Old 
     Town. Joseph had been working for the Old Town Woolen Mill. 
     They applied for a trucking license and were approved by the 
     Old Town city council on May 21, 1912. John and Joseph had 
     two horses and the company's frst jobs were hauling lumber 
     for Old Town Canoe. The Cyrs also operated a livery stable at 
     the family homestead on French Island (also known as Treat-
     Webster Island), and for many years, the Cyr stable was the 
     go-to place if you needed a horse and buggy to visit friends 
     or family. The company's wagons and carriages also delivered 
     mail and served as hearses, transporting local citizens to 
     their fnal resting place.


                            Fathers and Sons

       John T. Cyr & Sons, Inc./Cyr Bus Line celebrates its 100th 
     anniversary this year, putting it in an elite group of Maine 
     companies that have been in business for a century or more. 
     Old Town Canoe, located nearby in Old Town is one. Another is 
     the famous outdoor retailer L.L. Bean, which as Mike Cyr is 
     quick to point out, is also celebrating its 100th anniversary 
     this year.
       ``Cyr Bus is a fxture here,'' said Mike Cyr, one of a 
     fourth generation of Cyrs to work in the family business. ``A 
     lot of people figured we had already been here for 100 
     years.''
       For the Cyrs, a century of company history is inextricably 
     meshed with the family history. Through the years many family 
     members have left their mark on the business. Four of John's 
     five sons--Joseph, Albert, Arthur and Harvey--all worked for 
     the company in its infancy (Clibby, a ffth son who worked in 
     the woolen mill, eventually became an Old Town firefighter). 
     Albert, 19 and a weaver at the Old Town Woolen Mill in 1912, 
     was a silent partner for many years, coming on board full-
     time as the business continued to grow through the 1920s. 
     Arthur and Harvey, young children when their father and 
     brothers founded the company, grew up in the business and 
     eventually joined their brother Albert in running the company 
     in the 1930s and 40s after their father and brother died 
     unexpectedly in 1934. Harvey bought out his brothers in 1951. 
     Today, the company is run by Harvey's son, Joe Cyr. His 
     brother, Pete, works in the company's body shop. Joe's son, 
     Mike, oversees the company's coach division and manages 
     information technology--everything from the company's two-way 
     radio system to its computer hardware and software. Daughter 
     Becky Whitmore is the bookkeeper. Helping them these days, is 
     general manager Rick Soules, who the Cyrs hired not quite two 
     years ago. Bringing Rick in was a necessity as the company 
     has grown and diversified, and as Joe, now 71, has begun to 
     scale back the time he spends at the office.
       Working with family has always been one of the great joys 
     of the business, according to family patriarch and company 
     president, Joe Cyr, with the business officially for nearly 
     50 years.
       Joe drove trucks for H.E. Sargent and worked as a surveyor 
     for James W. Sewall during the summers before coming to work 
     at Cyr with his dad. His memories of working alongside family 
     go even further back--to being with his dad in the office 
     when he was six or seven, driving a company truck when he was 
     11 and washing buses as a kid. At 15, he was driving buses 
     for the family concern. He also found time to get his degree 
     from Old Town High School and a year of study at University 
     of Maine at Farmington and another year and a half at Husson 
     College. He left school and joined the company full-time in 
     1962 when a cousin who had been the company bookkeeper died. 
     For a while, Joe was not only the bookkeeper, he served as 
     the company mechanic, secretary and payroll clerk. In just a 
     few years, Joe was running the company, and after his father 
     Harvey died in 1967, he bought the business from his mother 
     for $25,000.
       Looking back, Joe said he has never regretted the decision 
     to spend his professional life at the helm of the family firm 
     and he always has considered himself honored to work 
     alongside his father, son, daughter, brother and cousins. 
     ``Frankly, I feel pretty darn lucky,'' said Cyr talking from 
     his winter home in Daytona Beach Shores, Florida where there 
     is a small community of Old Town snowbirds. Joe started 
     heading south in the winter 10 years ago, but he still 
     maintains close contact with Mike, Rick Soules--Cyr's general 
     manager--and others via phone and e-mail several times a day. 
     And he reels off facts about the business in quickfire 
     fashion. How many vehicles in the company fleet? ``250.'' How 
     many coaches? ``22.'' How many square feet at the company's 
     headquarters?
       ``We've got about 20,000 under cover there,'' said Cye, 
     stopping only to calculate the many expansions they have made 
     at the 10-acre site since 1980.


                       milestones and challenges

       The company has lived through good times and bad. There was 
     1934 when the family's two male patriarchs died--John in May 
     and Joseph in August. There were also two devastating fires 
     at the company's headquarters on French Island. The first was 
     in the early 1950s and the company garage and its full fleet 
     of eight buses were destroyed. The second fire hit in 1970, 
     destroying the company garage, an apartment over the garage 
     and one bus. In both cases, the family and employees came 
     together to get buses back on the road quickly.
       There were good times, as well. Nineteen hundred and 
     twenty-two was an important landmark. That was when John and 
     Joseph Cyr helped usher in the era of the automobile. They 
     bought the company's first motorcars--Studebakers--to 
     transport Old Town children to school. Four years later, 
     after housing the company fleet at several different 
     locations in Old Town, Cyr consolidated its operations at a 
     single location on French Island. The area was growing, and 
     by the early 1930s, cars were no longer large enough to 
     transport all the students traveling to Old Town schools from 
     Stillwater and Gillman Falls. So the city asked Cyr to buy a 
     bus.
       Cyr also had a taxi service, begun soon after the company's 
     founding, as well as freight hauling and storage services. By 
     the late 1930s, brothers Albert, Arthur and Harvey were also 
     operating a regular bus service connecting Old Town, Great 
     Works, Milford and Bradley, with special runs to locations 
     including Trenton and Green Lake. By the mid 1940s, the 
     company's regular motor coach routes had expanded to include 
     Old Town, Eddington, North Brewer and Bangor.
       The company also operated a limousine service, and during 
     the war transported German prisoners of war for the U.S. 
     Government to detention camps in the rural reaches of the 
     state. In the late 1950s and early 60s, Harvey, now head of 
     the company, expanded its stake in the school bus business. 
     By 1962, Joe had joined his father, Harvey, in the business 
     full-time, and John T. Cyr & Sons boasted a fleet of 12 
     buses, several cars and two dump trucks at its headquarters 
     on French Island.
       In 1976, Joe purchased the fleet of Pinecrest Bus Service, 
     the company that had been providing school bus service to the 
     city of Brewer (two years later, Cyr bought Pinecrest's lot 
     and garage). Then, Cyr bid for the contract to serve the 
     Bangor school system in 1978. They won the business. The 
     ramifcations were enormous for the small family-run firm. It 
     required purchasing more than two dozen new school buses at a 
     cost of about $17,000 each. It was one of the few times since 
     Joe had taken the helm they had to borrow money, but it was, 
     Mike recalled, a calculated risk his dad felt he had to take.
       ``He figured if he didn't do it, one of the big guys would 
     come in and take the business,'' said Mike. That year, there 
     was a 60-cent-per-gallon run up in fuel costs which caused 
     several anxious hours for the Cyrs. At the time, fuel for 
     buses was purchased by the bus company. Now, it is common for 
     school systems to purchase their own fuel, and Joe Cyr said 
     that adds more stability to contracts. Still, it all worked 
     out well. ``I still hate to borrow money, though,'' admitted 
     Joe recently.
       Perhaps the biggest milestone came when the city was in the 
     midst of a two-decade effort to redevelop French Island that 
     had, over the years, become increasingly overcrowded. As a 
     result, Cyr moved its headquarters across the river to its 
     current location at 153 Gilman Falls Avenue in Old Town in 
     1980. Long-time local residents can still

[[Page 6697]]

     remember the day in late October when the company's fleet of 
     buses made their way across the bridge from the island to 
     Cyr's new home on Gilman Falls Avenue.
       Over the years, the Cyrs have also been active in the 
     community. The business has been a long-time member of the 
     MBTA where Joe has served as a board member. Joe was for 
     several years president of the Bangor Chamber of Commerce 
     during the 1980s and has sat on several boards, including St. 
     Joseph's Hospital and Merrill Merchant Bank. The family was a 
     major contributor to the Cyr Family Field House at the Old 
     Town-Orono YMCA completed in 2001.


                             close at hand

       In 1984, Cyr took over the Aroostook County route, operated 
     by Bangor & Aroostook Railroad (B & A) since 1957 when the 
     railroad had ceased service to The County. The same day B & A 
     shuttered its service, Cyr bought the firm's coach bus and 
     hired its driver. Passengers didn't miss a day of service. 
     Today Cyr continues to run the daily transportation lifeline 
     to the county, connecting Bangor, Caribou, Fort Kent, 
     Houlton, Howland, Limestone, Oakfield, Orono, Madawaska, Mars 
     Hill, Medway, Presque Isle, Sherman and Van Buren. (The 
     service, considered an essential transportation link, 
     receives an operating subsidy from MaineDOT.) A Cyr bus 
     departs Bangor every afternoon and makes the return trip from 
     Presque Isle every morning.
       In 1990, the company purchased North-star Tours and began 
     offering charter tours throughout the country and to Canada 
     as Cyr Northstar Tours. In 2003, Cyr purchased Maine Line 
     Tours & Charters, a South Portland-based division of Peter 
     Pan Bus Lines. The move made John T. Cyr Maine's largest 
     charter operation, and in 2004, the company was honored as 
     Metro magazine's tour operator of the year. Nonetheless, the 
     long hours and splitting energies between operations in Old 
     Town and Southern Maine took its toll. The Cyrs sold the 
     South Portland charter operation in 2007.
       ``It was profitable,'' remembered Mike of the decision to 
     sell. ``But we just weren't comfortable being in two places 
     at one time.'' Today the company operations have become 
     increasingly complex, with three divisions and increasing 
     federal regulations regarding hours of service for the 
     company's long-distance drivers and expanded environmental 
     requirements on buses. At the same time, this year, the Cyrs 
     estimate, their buses will log more than 3 million miles. 
     Mike describes the Cyr philosophy as one that has grown from 
     his dad's unique combination of conservative fiscal approach, 
     a hands-on understanding of the business and a willingness to 
     step up when someone presents a challenge. Much of their 
     business--in both the school bus and tour charter divisions--
     comes to them through word-of-mouth. ``My dad hardly ever 
     says `no,' '' said Mike. ``Someone asks us to do something, 
     and we figure out how to get it done.''
       ``We could have grown a lot more,'' said Joe. ``Instead we 
     take what comes and do the best job we can. We're not trying 
     to be the biggest.''

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