Auto Shop in Tekonsha Explains Michigan Licensing Issue

An auto shop in Calhoun County that recently received a cease and desist order from the state of Michigan is speaking out to share their side of what happened. Meanwhile, several residents in Tekonsha, and around Calhoun County, are rallying to support the business, who received the letter after it was reported they had been operating unlicensed since April of 2020.

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S&S Automotive is a locally-owned auto repair shop located at 945 N. Main St. in Tekonsha. So far, we are the only media outlet to reach out to them to report on their side of what happened. Owner Cody Lee Suhonen spoke to us through messages and thanked us for reaching out and said he understood why we had published the original report on Monday, which came to us in a press release through Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.

Below is the statement the business put out on their Facebook page:

So according to the business, they have been doing everything they can to make this right, running into issues that seem to have happened to other businesses during the pandemic. Hopefully, this business can sort all of it out and the state will consider taking a less aggressive approach to what surely seems like a misunderstanding at the least and an apparent target of a small business during the worst possible timing at the worst.

Meanwhile, in a separate Facebook post, the owner thanked the community for support since the news broke and assured everyone they will continue to fight through it.

I just wanted to put this out there while all this is going on. I can not thank everyone enough for the amount of support that I have noticed. It's honestly mind-blowing. I have no words. All I can say is thank you and that's an understatement. We will continue to fight this issue and get everything resolved. We have built our small business from the ground up, made it through (the pandemic), and now this. There's no quit in us whatsoever. - S&S Automotive via Facebook

The Michigan Department of State (MDOS) issued the order on Friday, February 4, 2022, because they say the owner has failed to register as a repair facility under the Michigan Service and Repair Act. Officers with the MDOS executed an inspection on December 9th, 2021, and found that the owner was performing various repairs on vehicles with a repair facility registration that had expired on April 16, 2020, which was pretty much the time when nearly everything in the state was being shut down due to the looming COVID-19 pandemic.

Since this news came out, hundreds of people around Calhoun County have thrown their support behind the small business, and many feel like the state is targetting them unfairly, given the circumstances.