On August 16 1971, a new business opened its doors to the residents of the Central Pennsylvania city of Altoona. The name of the company was Allegheny Glass & Mirror. The founders were Edward and Lois Simanski. Although neither Ed or Lois had little or no formal business experience, they decided to ignore status quo and put both feet forward, dedicated to the unfamiliar task of successfully maintaining a specialty trade company.

Mr. Simanski had worked for other glass companies in the past on both the residential and commercial scale. With this experience he was able to readily accept the work detail that was ultimately to be the backbone and life of the new company.

Allegheny Glass & Mirror was to be a simple business that would provide glass and glazing service to the public with most of the jobs yielding to the small to medium sized accounts. Some days, with business cards in hand, Ed would set out on a mission of finding new opportunities for the company. By simply driving around town, he would look for broken windows in residents homes and give them a card with an approximate estimate on fixing the repair. With any luck, the person would accept the bid or maybe call later to schedule the job.