oil patch – Page 7 – Dustin Monke

Sculpting success: Oil boom helps Dickinson native’s welding business take off

0302 Iron Works 1 — Mike Gayda stands outside of the Iron Works Welding shop in north Dickinson.

Mike Gayda tried going to college.

After attending Dickinson State University for a short time he acknowledged, “College wasn’t for me.”

So, knowing he had a talent for welding, he took jobs with Steffes Corp. in Dickinson and at the Case IH Steiger plant in Fargo. It was at the latter that the Dickinson native had a chance conversation with a co-worker who tipped him off about welders running their own service trucks in the burgeoning western North Dakota oil fields.

So, in 2006, Gayda decided to move home and start his own business.

“It was perfect timing,” Gayda said.

When he was 20 years old, Gayda started Iron Works Welding with one service truck. He worked out of a heatless quonset on Dickinson’s south side by himself.

By 2008, before the true onset of the oil boom, he had found enough work to hire two employees and build a 6,800 square-foot building on a little less than an acre of land on a space just north of Dickinson in the industrial park off Highway 22.

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Enough is enough with Keystone XL

I’ve always wondered about the people who protest certain topics. Are they really that upset? Does everything rile them up that much? Does somebody pay these people to protest? Is this their job?

Lately, every time there is political movement on the Keystone XL pipeline, there’s an environmental activist group there with a protest — though we don’t get to see it because the protests usually only take place in a coastal California city like San Francisco or Los Angeles, and, of course, Washington, D.C. Both places are so far from where the proposed pipeline would go that one has to wonder why people would protest for something they’ve likely never seen in a place they’ve likely never been nor ever plan to go.

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Dickinson’s little world hinges on the big picture

A look at the neighboring Halliburton and Baker Hughes campuses in north Dickinson.

Last week brought word of numerous brand-name businesses planning to open in Dickinson.

Franchisees of Famous Dave’s barbecue restaurants are making plans to come here — though they aren’t sure where or when — and Five Diamond properties says Petco, JoAnn Fabrics and Dollar Tree are among the retailers planning to lease space in its new development planned for west Dickinson. The Roers West Ridge development has Menards and hotels that are sure to draw other big-box stores. Who knows? Maybe someone will even bring in Target for those of you who can’t stand Walmart.

I say this all the time because I believe it will be true: At the rate we’re going, there is going to be an entirely new part of Dickinson off Interstate 94’s Exit 59 in a couple of years.

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Dunn County Airport hangar destroyed, planes overturned

One of the more shocking scenes in the aftermath of Monday evening’s storm in Dunn County was the damage to Weydahl Field, commonly known as the Dunn County Airport on the north side of Killdeer.

The airport, which has seen a surge in usage because of oil activity in the area and was in the process of being improved, suffered a huge setback Monday when winds that reached up to 85 mph, overturning airplanes and completely destroying the hangar, leaving only the terminal intact.

“I think it’s a real tragedy because the people that own those airplanes have helped tremendously in the effort to help rebuild the hangar and the whole airport in general,” said Mike Schollmeyer, the vice chairman of the Dunn County Airport Authority. “It’s a lot of hard work that just got blown away. I feel really bad for everybody that’s put so much time in up there.”

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Golfing gem: The Links of North Dakota deals with oil’s impact

golf 1 — Ronnie Swartz, the head professional at The Links of North Dakota golf course near Ray, stands on Hole No. 2 at the course on June 6.

RURAL RAY — When it began gaining national recognition more than a decade ago, the Links of North Dakota golf course was known for its Scottish flair that harkened back to the game’s earliest days with a tranquil setting along the banks and bluffs of northern Lake Sakakawea.

Today, the course that bills itself as the best in the state — and has hardware to back up that claim — is in the middle of the western North Dakota madness that is the Bakken Oil Patch. When people use the word “flare” there, it has a widely recognized and wholly different meaning.

Ronnie Swartz, the head professional at The Links, said oil’s impact on the area surrounding the course can be seen in plain view at dusk.

“You can stand up on pretty much any hole and see them,” Swartz said. “At night, it looks like the hillsides are on fire just from the flares blowing off the natural gas.”

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