A recent cash prize will allow a Hamilton business to expand its operations.

Art’s Lawnmower Repair, which has been located at 2088 Millville-Oxford Road since 1982, was selected as a winner in the FirstEnergy Solutions Thanks a Million Giveaway, which was an opportunity for residents and businesses throughout Ohio to win cash prizes and secure a low electric generation price for four or seven years.

Art’s Lawnmower Repair is one of eight businesses that will receive $50,000, according to owner Walter Sauerwein.

“I couldn’t believe it when they called,” said Sauerwein, adding that he did some research to make sure it wasn’t a scam. “We were planning the expansion anyway, but this is going to make it a lot easier. It’s going to work out great.”

Growing up on a working farm, Sauerwein and his older brother Art learned how to fix things out of necessity.

“We lived on Kirchling Road in Ross,” Sauerwein said of growing up on a five-acre farm, where he and his brother repaired their own farming equipment. “One day, Art nailed a sign to a pole for repair work and people just started pulling up.”

Whenever there was something they couldn’t fix, the brothers took the equipment to Henry’s Hardware in Millville, where Sauerwein said the owner would let them watch as he fixed it for them.

“That was our learning process,” Sauerwein said.

Sauerwein entered the insurance business after graduating from college, but last year as his brother began focusing his attention more toward landscaping, he came back to run Art’s Lawnmower Repair.

“I was happy doing insurance, but this is the stuff I would do at the end of my day at work,” Sauerwein said. “It wasn’t a tough decision to leave the insurance business because this is what I really enjoy. This is the stuff I would come home and do at the end of my day from insurance.”

Sauerwein works on all makes and models of lawnmowers, weed eaters, chain saws, edgers, tillers, generators and snow blowers, as well as blade sharpening. He also has a supply room of approximately 15,000 parts, despite how much the business has changed over the years.

“Thirty years ago, they all had points and condensers and broke every year,” he said. “Mowers are much better and more reliable now, but the problems are still the same.”