Published: March 23, 2008 11:14 pm         

Lawn care business owner says firm’s yard signs are disappearing around Enid

The disappearance of some signs may slow down Lenny Juliano’s lawn mowing business.

Juliano, a sophomore at Wesleyan College in Bartlesville, has a successful summer lawn mowing business in Enid. He recently had some signs professionally made to advertise his business and placed some of them at the entrance to areas where many of his customers live. Six of eight signs have disappeared.

Some of the signs were placed in the medians at entrances to Willow West, Country Club West and Quail Creek residential areas. Some others were placed on lawns with the property owners permission, he said.

The 20-inch by 24-inch signs had been in place about a week, advertising L&L Lawn Care. The signs cost between $240 and $260 for eight of them. And now, six are missing.

Juliano said he does not think the city took the signs because he has been told they usually notify the individual when they do. However, his father will check with the Enid code office today.

Juliano became interested in lawn care a few years ago when a friend, Hannah Shriner, asked him to help her mow some yards during the summer.

“She would drive up in her mom’s minivan and we would mow the yards,” he said.

That experience piqued his interest. He worked with a partner for a couple of years and this year went on his own, with occasional assistance from his brother, Michael, and his father, Lenny Sr. He now has about 15 permanent customers and has been busy focusing on scalping yards as he begins his mowing season.

Juliano said his season usually starts about spring break and continues through September. The sophomore business major has built up his business and now has two Honda mowers, a weedeater/edger and a blower. This year he purchased a trailer.

“We take it seriously,” he said.

Juliano has experience working with a former coach who taught him about lawn work, and also from a friend who is in the lawn business. He doesn’t see the business getting much bigger, at least until he graduates college and has a job. He then could work on it part-time. However, he thinks his brother could expand it.

“This is the first year we’ve put the signs out, we advertised more than we ever have,” he said.

Juliano was impressed with how well the signs turned out and said they attracted attention and he has received comments on them.

Juliano is a member of Emmanuel Baptist Church, where he played bass guitar in the Refuge Resurrection Easter service Sunday.