Businesses that specialize in welding, metal fabrication and construction define the area east of the freeway, and they’re not only surviving the recession, in some cases they’re expanding

Editor’s Note: The Baker City Herald is chronicling changes taking

place on “The Other Side of the Freeway” – the commercial area east of

Interstate 84. The series started in the July 3 edition with a look at

the recent move and expansion of Grumpy’s Repair.

Beyond the motels and gas station along East Campbell Street, out past the freeway, there’s a kind of man’s world developing.

It’s an area dominated by blue-collar businesses specializing in farm equipment and auto repairs, welding and metal fabricating.

There’s also a gravel pit and a concrete company.

Gyllenberg Construction broke ground this spring on a 10,000-square-foot commercial business complex.

Brent Gyllenberg said he plans to use about 5,000 square feet of the new building as shop and office space for his construction business. Whatever he doesn’t use will be available for lease, possibly to other construction-related businesses.

He estimated the cost at about $300,000 to develop the five-acre site and build the first phase of the 10,000-square-foot building.

“My plan is to rent space to some light industrial or commercial companies,” Gyllenberg said. “It could be anything from plumbers to electricians – anybody who wants to be able to look out the window and see quick access to the freeway.”

“I’ve had a fire sprinkler company talk about putting in a small satellite shop. I also had a plumbing supply company look at it,” he said.

Initially he plans to lease space to one or two companies, but ultimately he expects to expand the commercial office/shop complex to include several companies.

He said the willingness to travel – sometimes hundreds of miles – to jobs sites is one of the keys to successfully operating a construction business in Baker County.

Despite the recession, Gyllenberg said his firm has stayed busy with large steel fabrication and concrete construction projects, including work on The Dalles Dam, John Day Dam and other dams along the Columbia and Snake rivers.

When he started the company in the 1970s, Gyllenberg said his typical job was probably a few thousand dollars, but nowadays he has more jobs in the $2 million range.

However, he said he still does lots of smaller jobs around Baker City, including residential construction and work on the city water and sewer plants.

When asked what gives him the confidence to invest $300,000 in the new office and shop complex, Gyllenberg said that while he has his doubts about the Obama administration’s ability to bring the country out of recession, he believes in the future of Baker City.

Besides the mountains and outdoor beauty and recreational opportunities, Gyllenberg said people like the historic downtown and the friendly small-town feel of Baker City.

As far as the potential for continuing development on the east side of the freeway, Gyllenberg said he recently sold a large chunk of land to the owners of Gentry Ford and Powder River Motors for a planned move of their car and truck dealerships to a site between the Super 8 Motel and United Parcel Service near the intersection of H Street and Best Frontage Road.

Brent Gyllenberg’s new office and shop complex project is on the south side of Campbell Street, across from Gyllenberg Equipment, which his brother, Clay Gyllenberg, and wife, Chris, built and have operated since 1994.

Although most of the eastside businesses, other than the motels and Chevron gas station, are of the blue-collar variety in which 77 percent of the workers are men, according to the Oregon Employment Department, women play key roles in many of those businesses.

Among them is Chris Gyllenberg, who keeps the books, schedules work and runs the front desk and parts counter at Gyllenberg Equipment.

“We built the original building in 1994, and we added on in 2004,” Chris Gyllenberg said.

She said Clay and Brent’s father, Jack Gyllenberg, owned much of the land on the east side of the freeway. When the couple built Gyllenberg Equipment it was a dream come true for Clay.

“Clay’s dream had always been to have a shop out here near the freeway. We have good visibility from the freeway, and it’s easy access on and off for trucks hauling tractors and other farm equipment,” she said.

Over the years Gyllenberg Equipment has grown into one of the area’s largest farm equipment repair businesses, with an expanded lineup of tractors and hay equipment.

While the depressed economy has taken a bite out of equipment sales, Chris said “repair work has stayed steady.”

“People are fixing things rather than buying more,” she said.

As for equipment sales, Chris said she expects things to be a bit slow until the economy turns around. However, she said during tough times, farmers have been more interested in basic, lower-cost European-made tractors such as the Zetors, which lack expensive computer controls.

“Farmers can work on them themselves,” she said.

Just around the corner from Gyllenberg Equipment and across from the new Grumpy’s Repair auto repair shop sits one of the longest running businesses on the east side of the freeway – Farm and Industrial Service Co., founded in 1982 by Louie Tholen, 78, and his former partner, Nils Christensen.

Tholen bought out Christensen in 1986 and he still comes into the shop to work even though he recently sold the business to his son, Donnie.

Louie Tholen said he enjoys visiting the shop to work restoring antique tractors and to do welding and metal-fabricating projects, including building specially designed trailers used by beekeepers for hauling bee hives.

The front office area is lined with shelves filled with all sorts of parts, hinges and metal-fabricating components, as well as a variety of antique tractor parts.

Sparks fly and lights flash from welding rods in the shop where the Tholens, and welders Gary Wentworth and Reggie Dougherty, work on metal-fabricating and trailer repair and construction projects.

“We do a lot of specialty welding and metal-fabrication work. We do a lot of stainless steel welding,” said Louie Tholen.

He said the company is one of the few that does stainless steel welding on restaurant equipment, which often takes their welders on the road.

“We used to do a lot of hydraulic work, but we don’t do that, and we don’t do engine or transmission work,” Tholen said. “We are metal fabricators. We can build just about anything out of metal.”

Tholen has earned a regional reputation for his skill and expertise rebuilding antique tractors. Right now he’s working on a blue 1957 Fordson Major diesel tractor. He also keeps several of his restored antique tractors in a storage shed, including his favorite – a restored 1951 Minneapolis Moline Model U propane-powered tractor his father bought new when the family lived and farmed in Kansas.

“I take every piece apart, repair any damage, paint it and put it back together. Then I paint everything again, so the paint job is better than new,” Tholen said.

He said he built his shop on the east side of H Street because the center of the street marks the city/county boundary, and he wanted to be on the county side because it was cheaper to build there.

“When we built our shop out here we liked it because we were out here pretty much by ourselves,” Tholen said.

While he enjoyed the solitude amid the sagebrush, Tholen said he’s met and likes his new neighbors – the Streifels, who just moved into their new Grumpy’s Repair shop on the other side of H Street, and Mike Hutton, owner of the new Northwest Ag Supply business around the corner on Best Frontage Road.

“I think they’ll fit in pretty well. They’re mostly auto and farm equipment repair businesses,” Tholen said.

He’s also looking forward to seeing the Powder River Motors and Gentry Ford dealerships relocate to the property between his shop and I-84.

“They’re talking about putting car dealerships out here. I think it will be a nice addition to the area,” Tholen said.