The Hometown Heroes event allowed children to meet first responders and decorate cookies in the demonstration kitchen.

TIFTON — Conger LP Gas is celebrating 30 years of being in business in South Georgia.

The company was started on July 1, 1989 by Perry and Dolores Conger, Charles Powell III and Paul Massey.

“They had no experience whatsoever,” said Dan Richardson, Conger president and CEO. “It was baptism under fire. But they did a really good job of getting it started.”

Richardson said that the original company started when the Congers bought Arrow Gas in Sylvester.

Conger LP Gas started out with around 700 customers. Now the company services approximately 7,000 customers in 30 counties.

“They really believed in having local people with local service,” Richardson said, who joined the company in 1998 as the general manager.

He attributes the company’s longevity to great employees continually focusing on customer service while making sure they changed and adapted with the times.

“This business is a relationship business,” he said. “There’s no way that one person can see almost 7,000 customers. But between the phone calls, the propane deliveries we make to customers’ homes, businesses and farms, the customers have to meet our employees. That has made a huge difference. They know them and we’ve been able to build up a trust and relationship and that’s hugely important that we have customers’ trust.”

The company expanded into working with farmers to convert their irrigation systems and school systems to covert school buses to run on propane.

Kirsten McAlpin, communications director, said that Conger LP Gas installed propane engines in school buses in Sumter County.

“A few of their school buses run on propane,” she said.

Richardson said that they expect the number of propane school buses will increase.

“The noise level of a propane bus versus a diesel bus is substantially lower,” he said. “The fumes, the carbon monoxide that comes out, the numbers are so much less.”

In December 2018, Conger LP Gas opened a new showroom in Tifton to showcase new ways to use propane.

The showroom features gas log fireplaces, generators, appliances such as cooktops, refrigerators, washing machines and dryers. The showroom also has grills and the Rinnai tankless water heaters for customers to look at.

The showroom features a demonstration kitchen that offers cooking demonstrations, cooking classes and baking competitions.

“So many times, companies don’t adapt,” Richardson said. “The millennial today will be our customer base in just a few years. We want to keep building.”