The Sidney herald., 1963-05-01


area.
when Albert Lalonde started
in the construction business
back in 1914 his equipment con
sisted cf II head of horses. a
couple Of scrapers and a plow
Along with his sons, Jay, Bert
and Gene, and a brother-in-
law, O'Neil Jones, the elder
Lalonde built the company in
to one of the leading road con-
tracing firms in this area
When he died in 1945 the La
londe Construction Companv
could boast of having construa-
ted every main road leading
into Sidney.
The firm was moved from
BalnvlLe in 1884 because of the
heavy work load in this area.
The decision to dissolve the
company was made about 2
year ago. Their latest work
was on the new Interstate svs-
tenn east and west of Wibaux
I'VE had no definite reason
dor selling" Jay pointed out
Wnen asked what brought the
sale on. "But you can be sure J,
ne added, "that it's no easv
move after you've watched the
company grow and been a part
of 1t for SO long"
Ihere's no definite figure
as yet on how much the sale
netted the company. "It was
/ Just like a farm auction" Jaw
v smiled. Some of it went better
q than we had expected and
: some didn't draw enough. Or
whole it went better than w,
n had anticipated"
The sale was handled bv th,
Forke Bros. Auctioneers on
Lincoln, Nebraska, and drew
buyers from 20 states and thre,
Canadian provinces.
IL got underway at 9:3O il
the morning and was finished
at Alb in the afternoon. The
d auctioneers had estimated tha-
# they would be finished by 400
j pm, give or take Is minutes. ,
: Which would put them abou
three minutes off schedule.
d The sale continued right or
: through the noon hour. Lunch
IS was served throughout the day
IS by the Catholic Ladies Alta
y Society at the Fairgrounds.
e Equipment that was sold in
is cluded 9 cats, about 70 truck
n for various purposes, 5 crush
ing and screening plants, 80 O
40 trailers of one type or an
other, 6 motor scraperS, 2 larg,
shovels, a number of welders
water pumps, compressors anc
other small construction equip
ment and complete asphal
paving plant that had beel
purchased at its location i
Wibaux.
Some of the equipment vii
find its way to Texas, some t
California and some as ia
south as Mississippi. 1t wa
being moved Wednesday, how
ever, the buyers have tw
weeks to do this.
A blueprint of the fair
grounds was prepared in ao
vance by Gene Lalonde an
all the equipment was place
in the order of which it woul
be sold. The auctioneers the.
sent numbers along that wer
placed on each piece of equip
ment.
The firm employed Is flu
time "key" personnel. Thes
men were with the compan
year around. During construt
ton periods they employed u
to 200 persons. The majorit
of the fifteen have alread
found employment with othe
construction firms, according
Jay. About 40 or so person
living in Sidney were employe
Z during the summer period,
said.
Jay pointed out that the
had no definite plans for til
shop buildings near the swim
ming pool.
He could give no estimate
this time as TO just what the
dissolvement would mean
the economy of Sidney. "Na
le urally'', he said, 1--WE paid Il
ID in taxes and purchased a Il
~ of parts and repairs in Sidney
= While it may have been b
e day in Sidney Tuesday, a vo
~ will be left that will be awful
to tough to fill.