December 2016 | Business View Magazine

106 107 two-way broadcast work and the tower inspections.Those types of connections always helped Tri State fill the void and made it a pretty successful operation.” “When Rick founded Tri State Tower in the early’90s, he was driving a late 1980s Buick Skylark around from tower to tower,” says Pete Hagstrom, the company’s Vice President for Business Develop- ment.“We currently have over fifty trucks, trailers, and special equipment in our fleet. It’s pretty neat to think about how far we’ve come.”Today,Tri State also has 75 employees and has expanded from its original three-state area –Iowa,Wisconsin, and Nebraska –to include work in NewMexico, California,Texas,Washington, and NewYork, among other places. “We’ve been all over the country,” says Brunscheen. Tri State’s services include: turn- key tower construction and erec- tion, including site acquisition, pad and pier foundations, grounding utilities, site grading, access road installation, compound and anchor fencing, generator installation, line and antenna installation, and microwave installation; tower site maintenance, including emergen- cy and disaster recovery; technical services, such as equipment instal- lation and inspection, as well as troubleshooting and testing: and a new fiber division that offers fiber optic placement, splicing, testing, drilling, trenching, and boring. Brunscheen stresses that since much of Tri State’s projects come from its current customers as repeat business, building rela- tionships with them, and always “going above and beyond” is still key to the company’s success.“We AT A GLANCE | tri state tower WHAT: Tower fabrication, construc- tion, and maintenance for wireless companies WHERE: Marion, Iowa WEBSITE: www.tristatetower.com Robert L. Hammerberg, CIC 319-393-5262 bhammerberg@firstiowa.com www.firstiowa.com We are committed to keeping your contracting business protected so you can focus on your day-to-day operations. tri StAte tOwer don’t work for just anybody,”he says.“We try and work for people who have the same type of values that Tri State Tower has.We focus on people who are going to have a relationship with us and get to know us and knowwhat we’re about.” Hagstrom says that the company’s field teams will often do extra work for their long-term clients,whether it’s checking fire ex- tinguishers and first aid kits, or checking anchors for rust.“By doing so,we’re creating value for the customer,”he explains.“We’re trying to make sure that they’re getting the most for their money.We live by the culture of doing things without being asked; doing the right thing, even if no one is looking.We’re going to leave the site better than it was when we showed up.” That type of attention to its clients also helps the company garner new business.“If a customer is satisfied with the work that we’re doing,we reach out to those customers and leverage them to put us in other markets with that company,” says Brunscheen. “So, if it’s one of the wireless carriers, and we’re doing a lot of great things for them in Iowa,we’ll reach out to people in Iowa and ask for a reference for their partners inWisconsin.” Tri State pays close attention to its own employees, as well.“We do a lot of promoting fromwithin,” says Hagstrom.“A lot of our se- nior Project Managers started off being a Tech One, to a Tech Two, When Rick founded Tri State Tower in the early ’90s, he was driving a late 1980s Buick Skylark around from tower to tower. We currently have over fifty trucks, trailers, and special equipment in our fleet. It’s pretty neat to think about how far we’ve come. pete hagstrom VP for business development Preferred vendor n First Iowa Insurance Agency, Inc. www.firstiowa.com