Ever since 31-year-old Krista Benson was small, she helped her father Lou in his hardware store, True Value in New Paltz, and listened carefully as he talked patiently to his customers. By the time she turned 13, Krista was working in the store after gymnastic practice — she was a competitive gymnast —and on the weekends. She loved the tools especially — what they could do, how they worked, how they were maintained — and she loved her dad. “We were really close,” she says. “I miss him.”
It’s a rainy Saturday afternoon and we are talking in her shop — New Paltz Equipment Rental on North Chestnut next to Franz Auto. “Everyone thinks my Dad gave me the store, but when he sold off True Value and moved the rental part of the business to North Chestnut, I gave up working for a hard cider company, and bought it from him in in March, 2020. In fact, we did a flip: I used to work for him but when we moved into this space, he worked for me and kept his window shades business going also. He’d had bypass surgery and needed to slow down. So, the timing was right.”
Then, on May 24, 2023, Lou Benson died after a short illness at the age of 70. Krista was left on her own, a sole proprietor, and a woman. She had no one to consult, no one to advise her except for her mom, Marta, who had always been the bookkeeper for the business. Billie and Rose Franz, her co-tenants, became like family, too, Krista says. “I wasn’t going to give up,” Krista says. Hard work, fortitude, strength in adversity when a business is struggling is in her DNA. The Benson family is well known in New Paltz and beyond as entrepreneurs. “My grandfather owned a restaurant in Gardiner,” Krista says. “That’s what started my Dad in business.”
Krista looks around. She’s proud of her tools. They are the landscape of her days, polished and clean, displayed in a tidy pattern throughout the shop, the shelves loaded with clean and well-oiled equipment ready to serve do-it-yourselfers and contractors. Although she sometimes outsources maintenance to her friend Mike Koski of Your Service Center in Kingston, Krista maintains most of her tools and machines with attention and care, demonstrates their use as needed, and helps load them into waiting cars and trucks, She’s strong from her gymnastic days and keeps fit “just by working,” she says.
On the day I visited, a big burly guy couldn’t manage the trolley holding a huge pounding machine. Krista popped out from behind the desk and in a swift, well- practiced motion, rolled it out to his car.
“Sometimes the guys don’t believe that I can shift a big machine into their vehicles or that I own this place and know so much about tools and machines. I’ve had guys scream at me. One even told me I didn’t belong in the business.”
“Because you are a woman?” I asked.
“Probably.”
“What did you say?
“I appreciate that, thank you.”
Strange, or sad, that in 2023 Krista is still sometimes seen as a woman in a man’s world. She defies the stereotype every day and keeps working hard, as her Dad taught her. Undoubtedly he would have been proud of his daughter.
She took me out back to see her latest acquisitions: a tractor, an excavator and a wood chipper. She knows how to use all of them. “A lot of people see that tractor and can’t wait to drive it,” she says with a smile. “I’m happy to teach them.” When she contemplates growing the business, this is what she’d like to do: teach people how to use tools and machines safely and responsibly. “I tell everyone to take their time, respect the machine, not to feel intimidated. And if they need advice, I am here.”
For more information, contact: New Paltz Equipment Rental, 117 N Chestnut Street, New Paltz 845 633-8497 https://npequipmentrental.com/
Carol Bergman is a journalist and educator living in New Paltz. Her last piece for HV1 was a profile of Shabazz Jackson.
Join the family! 
