West Milford Before Richie Gomm heads out to his tire and auto repair shop in the morning he has a few other things to tend to - turning out and feeding his animals. He didn’t always have a menagerie but, in part thanks to the guys at his shop, he and his wife, Cookie, now have their own little piece of animal heaven at their Upper Greenwood Lake home. Gomm, 64, is a life-long resident of West Milford. He grew up in Hewitt and graduated from West Milford High School in 1964. He served in the Army from 1965-1967. As he looks forward to celebrating 40 years in business, he spoke of how his career in automotives started at the tender age of 10. “My father passed away when I was very young and I began hanging out at the Sunoco station in Hewitt,” Gomm said. At his present location on White Road since 1998, he’s been in business solo and with partners since 1970. Gomm has been around the block, West Milford style, with several different facilities in town and at one time he had a used car dealership on Macopin Road. Gomm knows his way around cars and tires. The tire business has changed significantly over the years. “Back when we started there were five different size tires. Now there are 200 different sizes,” he said. Stocking such a sizable inventory would warrant a warehouse, at least, and Gomm has found that in the last two years tire companies have cut back on their production because cars have not been selling at their usual pace. Gomm most enjoys getting called out to fix a big truck on the road. While he’s away from the shop he knows he can depend on his five employees and his manager, Mikey Dougherty, to keep it humming. Dougherty has been with Gomm for 15 years and not only does he think along the same lines as the boss, he’s considered more like a son. Gomm hopes that when the time comes to retire, Dougherty will step into his work boots. When asked about tire replacement Gomm spoke of the safety issues involved with worn tires. Wet roads, slippery leaves, ice and snow all make for hazardous driving without good tires. “All tires today are built with wear marks. When you see a straight line that goes across the tread, that’s the wear indicator,” he said. Keeping with the mom and pop working environment at Gomm’s Tires, Cookie, the computer savvy one in the family, has been holding up the business end of the facility for years. So, what’s it like working with her husband every day? “Some days it’s wonderful,” she said with a laugh, then added that Gomm is the most honest, hard-working person she’s ever met and proudly noted that they have third generation customers. Cookie looks forward to the time when they can retire into the sunset with their animals to keep them company. “I don’t see him retiring 100 percent though. He’s a worker,” she said. Back to the farm, which now includes turkeys, chickens, roosters, goats, mini horses and the cream on the top of the salt lick, mini donkeys. “It started off that we had chickens at the shop. Then somebody gave me roosters, then a pair of goats. Then the hens started laying eggs. That’s how we started the farm,” Gomm said. For a Christmas gift the guys at the shop presented Gomm with a mini donkey, a protective buddy for the other animals, as donkeys are known to keep away bears and fox. Cookie and Richie soon learned that the little donkey could not be without a donkey playmate, and so the story, and the livestock, grew from there. For now, Gomm is content to put in his days at the shop then return home to put the animals to bed. He follows into his own bed shortly after. Cookie, who claims to be clueless when it comes to changing a tire or even putting air in one, said “That’s what Richie’s for.” Seems like, over the last 40 years, a lot of West Milford folk agree with that sentiment.