Boyd Artesian Well Co. Inc., Kent
DAVID PROPPER PHOTO
The first time Henry Boyd drilled a well for water, he was just 11-years-old working for the family business.
Decades later, Boyd is still well drilling and now leading the family business, Boyd Artesian Well Co. Inc., located in Kent.
The business has been run in the same family since 1932 and Boyd has run the business since 1970 when Richard Nixon was president and the average price for a gallon of gasoline was 36 cents.
“This is what I was going to do since the day I was born,” he said.
The business was originally based in Norwalk, Ct. when Boyd’s father, grandfather and uncle started the business and then Boyd moved to Putnam for more opportunities.
Boyd’s Artesian will go from the Pennsylvania border to the Rhode Island border, drilling all throughout Connecticut, as far north as Albany and as south as Staten Island in New York.
The business drills water wells to get clean water into households with pumping systems and services existing water wells when a problem arises. Boyd’s Artesian also offers commercial drilling, too. He noted new construction, in good years, is usually 80 percent of the company’s business and well repairs is the other 20 percent.
He noted business was never the same after 2007 once the Great Recession gripped the country.
Boyd said his business tries to keep ahead of the technology and always does work the proper way with the latest techniques. Boyd is involved in the educational program in New York State for well drillers and is the vice chairman of the county’s mechanical trade board. He is also the president of the Carmel-Kent Chamber of Commerce. He said being civic minded and keeping qualified workers in the fold for many years, in some cases decades, helps bring business in. All of his workers are properly certified.
“I’m involved in the community,” Boyd said. “The community pays me back for that.”
Boyd said he’s concerned about some of the chemicals seeping into the ground and has been to seminars and works with state and local health departments to address it.
Boyd is also worried about the amount of salt put on the roads in the winter, which can make water undrinkable, including at his own home. To a certain extent, Boyd has made it a crusade to raise awareness to show just how problematic salt on the roads is, especially because there is no way to purify it.
Soon, homeowners will need to turn to reverse osmosis filtration in order to make their water drinkable, Boyd mentioned.
Boyd’s son and grandson are becoming more involved with the business, resulting in five generations of the Boyd family drilling in the area.
“Well drilling gets in your blood and that’s what you do,” he said.
