We know we can't be all things to all people but we plan to be most things to most people. Jim Kleinfelter
Like a rising phoenix from the ashes of a financial crisis, Geauga Savings Bank is not only back on the radar, but is reinventing itself.
Incoming president and CEO Jim Kleinfelter wants residents and business owners in Geauga, Cuyahoga and Lake counties to know they have another vigorous, full-service community bank in their neighborhood.
“When the recession hit, (the bank) hunkered down and made almost no loans, only renewals and now the bank has gradually been reintroducing its lending products. We are steadily expanding our product offerings so that we have a complete line of banking and lending services and products,” said Kleinfelter, who has been serving as the acting president of GSB since former President Allen Lencioni resigned in June.
Services include commercial and commercial real estate loans, agriculture loans and construction loans. The bank will soon be rolling out owner-occupied home loans, personal residence loans, home equity lines of credit and consumer loans as well, he said.
Kleinfelter will officially become president and CEO Aug. 21. He decided to take the job after a 12-year stint as a consultant with Young and Associates, Inc.
“After 12 years of constant overnight travel, the thought of being home every night was very appealing, plus the exciting opportunity the Geauga Savings Bank now presents,” he said during a sit-down interview last week. “We have a real chance to rebuild the bank and grow the bank and we have all the people and all the tools to do it.”
One of those people is a familiar face — former longtime GSB President Betty Kimbrew, who Kleinfelter wanted to bring back into the fold for various reasons, including her history with the company.
“Because of how well-known she is and how well-thought-of she is,” he said, adding Kimbrew — who served as bank president from 1988 to 2008 — will be helpful in rebuilding the bank’s reputation and presence as the community relations manager.
“The bank really wants to get back to its grassroots and that is serving northeastern Ohio with lending and deposit products,” Kimbrew said.
Kimbrew goes way back with GSB, coming on board as vice president in 1985, just two years after the bank was formed in a trailer in the Teague Plaza parking lot at 10800 Kinsman Road (state Route 87) in Newbury Township.
At that time, the bank was under what was called the Ohio Deposit Guarantee Fund, the state version of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Larger institutions bankrupted the fund, causing the governor to close down any ODGF banks in 1988, Kimbrew recalled.
“My first day was the day the governor closed us down,” she said, adding the bank was able to reopen in three weeks. She took over as president that same year, replacing Keith Fauver.
“I felt like someone picked me up out of Lake county and threw me in Texas because I walked in the branch and saw ten-gallon hats and cowboy boots and Amish people in the lobby,” she said with a laugh.
Under Kimbrew’s presidency, the bank expanded, taking over two vacated stores next door to GSB in the Teague Plaza to create offices for staff. And at one point, they had opened a full-service branch in Middlefield and grew GSB substantially through its loans, with five loan production offices in Lakewood, Chardon, Solon, Mentor and Newbury — all of which closed right before or during the financial crisis.
When the economy crashed in 2008, Kimbrew had left GSB to serve as executive director of Geauga County Habitat for Humanity and Lencioni came on to perform damage control and lead the bank through some of the difficulties.
“It took a lot of time to fix everything that was going wrong,” Kleinfelter said, adding, unlike the 1981 recession, the economy took much longer to rebound.
But the bank finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel and is now ready to be the best it can be for its patrons.
“We know we can’t be all things to all people but we plan to be most things to most people in terms of financing,” Kleinfelter said. “There’s a real niche in a 5-mile radius of big homes with lots of land or horse farms that the big banks don’t want to do or don’t have a way of doing them because they won’t fit into the traditional residential lending, so I think there’s a real opportunity for us there.”
As for other reasons to “go local” when banking, Kleinfelter mentioned “quick decision making, no multi-layered committees to make decisions, high tech and high touch.”
The personal touch is definitely one of the reasons Mike and Gloria Reljanovic have been GSB patrons for over two decades.
“We started banking with Geauga I believe in the ’90s, so it’s been awhile,” Gloria said. “We had moved here from Illinois and we are business owners, so we wanted to bank in the community. We approached Geauga because we live in Newbury and the bank is right here, so that’s how we came to start doing business with Geauga Savings Bank.”
Gloria said the bank really welcomed them and its staff showed interest in them as people as well as their business needs.
“(During the recession), we were forced to bank with different banks and to this day, we just know the difference from the other banks to Geauga (Savings Bank),” she said. “You do have outstanding services and you know your customers and you are in touch with the community, you don’t push your customers. Regardless of who we deal with at the bank, whether it’s the front tellers or the back office, people know us and they always strive to give us over and above what we need. They’re always out there to help us out, so we appreciate that and we will continue to bank with Geauga for a long time hopefully.”
Mike echoed Gloria’s sentiments, adding Kimbrew handled his account personally when he first started banking at GSB, which impressed him.
“We’ve got five different banks and (GSB) by far (is) doing a better job than the other four and that’s why we stay with them,” he said, adding the bank also keeps a close eye on his account, which helps to avoid fraudulent activity.
“That’s why we keep with the smaller banks,” he said. “With the big ones, we’re just a number. They could care less.”
