Susquehanna Automatic Sprinklers Inc. was incorporated on November 1, 1976 by Phil Shepp. Phil’s mother, Esther Shepp, was the secretary and his sister, Mary Lou Millen, the bookkeeper.
SASI’s office was located at 115 N. Harrison St. in York , where it rented the second floor from Esther, who owned the home and lived on the first floor. When Esther passed away in 1991, SASI took over the entire property. A 288 square foot addition was added to the rear of the house in 1995 . SASI still remains at this location today.
SASI also rented a 15’ x 40’ garage on West Clark Ave. as its first shop. The shop was relocated to 1033 East Market St. (rear), in 1982. In 1985 the shop was relocated to Phil’s garage at 1041 Canford St. where it remained until being moved to its present, 351 East St., location in 2001.
The first several months in business were spent setting up the office and shop along with performing various consulting services, engineering jobs and estimating sprinkler system installations. In March of 1977, SASI landed its first installation contract, which was the William Bernstein Building , located at 110 Carlisle Ave. in York. The system was fabricated by Service Pipe and Supply Co. in Philadelphia. Installation was started on May 2, 1977 under the direction of SASI’s first full-time field employee, Steve Lewis.
Gradually, the company obtained more contracts and service orders. More manpower was added as needed. Buzz Shepp started working part-time in SASI’s shop over summer vacations beginning in 1978. He became a full time employee in 1981 and eventually became the field superintendent and Vice -President. Stan Shepp came on board part-time in 1979 and a year later moved into the office to learn engineering. In 1982, Stan became a full-time employee in the engineering department, eventually becoming the chief engineer. Stan became NICET Level IV certified in the early 90's. In 2005 Stan left SASI and moved to Utah, where he eventually started his own fire protection company, Southwest Automatic Sprinklers, Inc.. Stan still remains an officer of Susquehanna Automatic Sprinklers, Inc. and performs engineering work on a consultant basis. When Stan left, his son Dave Shepp took over the design duties at SASI, working closely with his father through phone and internet communication.
In 2008, Buzz's daughter, Tasha Shepp started as a part time employee while attending YTI Career institute where she earned an associates degree in business administration. After graduating from YTI in 2010 she became a full time employee. Tasha takes care of accounts payable, accounts receivable and payroll at SASI. Since its inception, SASI has grown to 17 full-time employees, and performs services for well over 200 south central Pennsylvania businesses.