TF surveying business under new ownership

Hagedorn Land Surveying has sold and is under new ownership as of November 1 of this year. Mountain Plains, the company that bought Hagedorn, will continue to offer the same services, including planning and land surveying. An added benefit resulting from the merger is civil engineering, according to owner, Tony Wood.

Mountain Plains opened in Bismarck, North Dakota in 2009 after Wood graduated college. With offices in Bismarck and Waterford City, North Dakota, he then expanded to Montana with an office in Missoula five years ago. Their newest office is now located in Thompson Falls.

"Giving employees the opportunity to work closer to home was the biggest draw to opening a location in Thompson Falls," Wood said. The owner says he currently employs four people who come from the Thompson Falls area; Simon Stonehocker, Greg Schenavar, Brandon Damaskos and Tim Hagedorn.

As for the newest location, Wood says he's excited to be here. "I'm mostly driven by the opportunity to give back to those team members who are local," he said. "It's a heavily weighted benefit, being able to give these people the opportunity of not having to spend so much time away from their family."

The Hagedorn family has owned their company since 2011 and Rick Hagedorn says while he will probably never fully retire, finding a new owner serves as the first step in that direction. "This area has such a need for these services, I didn't want to leave a gap in the community," Hagedorn said. "I wanted the community to have the same level of service or better." Hagedorn says he will stay with Mountain Plains for the next three years to help with the transition and training.

"Rick and Robin have done a really nice job for the community and Rick wants to make sure people will still have access to these services," Wood said. "The goal is not to change that but to continue it. We want to increase overall bandwidth and quality for our customers."

Wood says he will continue his work in the Bismarck office, but loves being able to have an excuse to return to the mountains. "I'm a mountain guy at heart who ended up building a life in the plains, which is where the company's name comes from," he said.

The discussion for Hagedorn to sell to Wood began around a year ago. "It was a long process to get to this point," Wood said. "This is what he [Hagedorn] poured his career into. We want to make sure we honor that and not swoop in and start changing things."

The new owner says Mountain Plains currently employs around 40 people and hopes to eventually open up three positions in the Thompson Falls area. "Marrying everything together takes time," Wood explained. "The goal here will be to have a local community member take on Rick's legacy and continue to do what he has done all these years."

Once Hagedorn found someone to take over the company, he said Wood always felt like the right fit and that feeling has stayed consistent over the last few years of working together. "I like the way he runs his business and how he handles himself," Hagedorn said of the working relationship with the Mountain Plains owner.

Mountain Plains is located at 108 Pearl St. For more information, visit http://www.mtnplains.com or call (406) 396-2991.