First Star Safety, which specializes in the sale, lease and rental of construction and traffic safety equipment, recently opened its new 2,000-square-foot warehouse in Loveland, Ohio. The company’s fleet includes equipment such as orange barrels, cones and signs.

“For rental, we’ll do the install of those items as well,” Kelly Hollatz, owner and president of First Star Safety, told RER Reports.

The company’s customers include construction companies, government agencies such as the city of Cincinnati and smaller municipalities such as the city of Loveland.

“There’s only a couple other companies in Cincinnati that do this kind of work,” Hollatz said. “A friend of mine owns a construction company and he mentioned that there’s really nobody else in the rental industry — there’s one major company and then a few smaller ones — so I did some research and it sparked some interest for me and here I am.”

According to Hollatz, business from construction equipment companies near Cincinnati is steady because the majority of them rent the traffic safety equipment they need on jobsites. “They call me and I’m the one who puts up all the signs and sets up traffic patterns and things like that.”

Hollatz, who said she eventually plans to expand her fleet to include light boards and other large pieces of traffic safety equipment, started First Star Safety in November 2006. She also owns Star PR and Event Coordinating, a small public relations firm that specializes in corporate event planning, which she launched while attending college.