CRAIGLOW BOOKKEEPING MOVES UPTOWN

Beverly Craiglow Koehler is no stranger to the Jackson business community and neither is the building she is renovating at 520 S. Hope.

Koehler has operated Beverly Craiglow Bookkeeping Services since 1985 -- first out of her home and later at 1233 Old Cape Road.

In January she moved to the South Hope site. She and her new husband, Larry, are nearly done with renovating the building.

The site itself has been the scene of numerous Jackson businesses. Probably best remembered as the Prill-Hahs Ford dealership in the 1950s, it was later a boat shot, a ceramics shop and a transmission shop.

Using Hall Excavating to demolish part of the old structure and Stout Construction to reframe the building, the Koehlers spent their honeymoon working on the building. She noted that "everybody you talk to has a different memory of it."

"We need to get a little better organized and fix a few things on the interior, as well as the awning," Koehler said. "We're functioning real well, though. We wanted to be in by Dec. 1, but we just couldn't work fast enough. We got in here in time. It's worked out very well."

Koehler said the response has been very good.

"The whole city seems to think it's great that somebody is doing something with the building," she said. "For a while we had a plastic tent around the outside while we renovated it. I took a lot of kidding about working in a tent."

Koehler offers bookkeeping, tax preparation, business and individual tax returns and payroll services -- including direct deposit.

Koehler said a high school accounting class began her interest in the field of numbers.

"My senior year in high school I took a bookkeeping class, just to fill my schedule," she said. "I really enjoyed it. I took more classes in college and have pretty well worked in that field all my career."

Koehler, a Jackson High School alumnae who has two daughters, a granddaughter and five step-children, said she has seen a 30 percent increase in business since changing business locations.

"I thought this was a great location," she said. "It has high visibility."