New Owner at Fallon Glass & Signs

by Rachel Dahl Jesse Segura is a real-life example of an entrepreneur; diverse, open to new things, and willing to take a chance. The owner of several local businesses, he drop-ships vaccines for large animals across the country through HD Vet, provides a mail service and printing through 3-D Ship, and now has taken over the ownership of the local glass shop, Fallon Glass & Signs. Located at 2955 Reno Highway, Fallon Glass & Signs has been owned and operated by Lou and Skip Carrica for the past 43 years. “One day I came in here and talked to Lou and here we are,” laughed Segura. When most people think glass shop they think windshields, but Segura has plans to provide the same great customer service to meet all the local glass needs. “The way Lou and Skip started this business and grew it, they’ll do anything with glass and that’s not going to change, if you have a glass issue we’re going to try to solve the problem for you locally,” said Segura. “Whether you have a picture frame or you need windows in your house or your automobile needs a new windshield we’re going to take care of you locally.” He plans to expand the business slowly, and has kept all the same employees who have been serving the community for years. At Fallon Glass & Signs customers can also find the hardware for older doors, older houses, old windows, sliding shower doors. Segura said they keep many hard-to-find pieces of hardware and they try to find any piece they don’t have in the store. To begin the expansion of what Fallon Glass & Signs can provide locally, Segura is now doing large scale vinyl printing. “We have a 64-inch vinyl printer and we can print anything from signs to banner to anything and we’re trying to keep them more affordable than anywhere in Reno,” said Segura. “We want to give a local option for people.” He said they often needed the larger printing at HD Vet, and at 3-D Ship. “We found that we were needing it for us and there wasn’t a local option with that size of printer.” Customers often came into 3-D Ship for large printing jobs that Segura would have to outsource or sometimes not be able to do and now those larger print jobs can be done locally, right in town. Kathy Lytle is the graphic designer at Fallon Glass & Signs, and is having a great time learning to work with the new printer. She said sometimes learning to work with vinyl has been a challenge. “It can lay down perfectly, or it can crinkle, create bubbles, or stick where it's not supposed to stick,” she laughs. “For designs that have multi-colors, you have to cut the colors separately and use registration marks to line-up the layers and hopefully the vinyl cooperates and all goes well, but many times it doesn't which is frustrating.” Lytle said she can create a design using many colors, gradients, and special effects. “I can tell the printer that I want to contour cut the design and text and it will lay down a bar code while printing.” She then takes that print, puts it into the new cutter, and the cutter reads the bar code and cuts around the contour of the design or text. “It's pretty cool to watch,” said Lytle. The finished product is then in one piece and ready for installation. They also have a laminator that protects the prints from UV and outdoor elements, and they can print on any type of vinyl and make banners in any shape or size. As HD Vet and 3-D Ship evolved, and Segura adds Fallon Glass & Signs into his repertoire, it will be interesting to see what business will come next.       Sign up to receive updates and the Friday File email notices. Support local, independent news – contribute to The Fallon Post, your non-profit (501c3) online news source for all things Fallon.