Lake View Services LLC, based in Beulah and Trenton, North Dakota, is reaching new heights – literally – with its recent addition: a 250-ton Tadano crane. Purchased in May 2024, the boom of the new crane alone can reach nearly 230 feet, which is just shy of the 241-foot, 21-story tower of North Dakota’s Capitol. This heavy piece of equipment is opening new opportunities for the 14-year-old company.
Gary and Carla Poeckes, owners of Lake View Services LLC, recognized a need for the larger crane due to increased work in the surrounding communities and Bakken shale formation. To achieve heavier loads safely and the increasing number of requests, Lake View Services needed to invest in equipment.
With the need identified, the next step was deciding whether to lease or finance the crane. The Poeckeses visited with their local lender, Union State Bank of Hazen, and decided to finance it. Union State Bank partnered with Bank of North Dakota (BND) and utilized BND’s Business Development Loan Program. The program provided an affordable rate and allowed the purchase transaction to happen in North Dakota, which kept the tax revenue in state.
“We’ve had people say, ‘Well, you’re just a small crane company.’ Now we can compete with anybody out there, and we are,” Carla Poeckes states. “We’re competing with crane companies out of Bismarck and a lot of crane companies in the Williston area, so it makes us more competitive and will generate more income than the smaller cranes.”
The cranes can be used for projects including precast concrete buildings, coil tubing in oil fields, wind turbines, weather towers, pumpstation houses and more. The company also provides flatbed hauling, belly dumping, and pickup and gooseneck hotshot services. It serves customers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Canada, and even countrywide for hotshot – or pickup and flatbed – runs.
The company, which started in 2011 with three trucks and a loader, has experienced year-over-year growth and weathered the downturn of the oil industry during the COVID-19 Pandemic. The passion the Poeckeses have for their work and their employees is evident. Gary started working around cranes when he was 18, and Carla admits she is a “crane-a-holic,” confessing her vacation photos are often pictures of cranes. Regarding their employees, she explains, “We’re family.”
To avoid downtime between jobs and retain their 15 employees, the Poeckeses creatively expand their company’s services as needed to keep business flowing and meet the needs of their customers and communities. For example, they help with erosion control, dirt work, grounds maintenance, and even started stocking aggregate after realizing a need in the community.
Gary Poeckes explains, “What we did for the aggregate is when somebody would come in and want to buy, say, class five, we would run all the way over to Riverdale, load it and then take it to them. Well, we only handled what they needed, where we can haul 28 ton on a truck. If they only needed two ton, it was kind of senseless for us to run. We started piling it in the yard to make it more convenient for the community. Rather than them taking their pickups all the way over to Riverdale and they come with a 5 ½ yard bucket, try to dump a little bit in the back of a pickup, we thought, ‘Well, we’ll do that.’”
Serving the local community and maintaining relationships are a priority with Lake View Services and the Poeckeses. As Union State Bank Executive Vice President Lending Department Manager Leanne Stiefel shares, “When Carla and Gary say they’re hands on, they’re hands on. The diversification that they have in their approach of ‘if this isn’t busy, let’s go do this,’ and the foresight for ‘okay, we can see this is going to slow down, so we’re going to go this direction’ help them be successful.’”
BND Business Banker Andrew Tweet adds, “The Poeckeses are very present in their business and value the relationships they have in the industry and the community. Their all-around values, business approach and dedicated employees strengthen their company and help the Poeckeses continue to drive the business they are so passionate about.”
“I love what we do. I love our company. When we started the company, I was so scared and nervous, and now I’m not because we’ve learned and grown so much,” Carla expresses. “I learn something new every day.”
