EquipmentWorld.com | April 2014
55
Nitteberg
Construction Company
Year started: 1974
Number of employees: 30
Annual revenues: $5 to $7 million
Markets served: Rural water, city
water and sewer, township roads,
gravel and maintenance.
Gale Nitteberg
Estelline, North Dakota
E
ach February, Gale Nit-
teberg, his wife Sandy
and their grandchildren
pack up and head south
for about a month to es-
cape the harsh South Dakota winter
for the warm beaches of Florida.
He says years ago he and his wife
talked about leaving South Dakota
and maybe moving somewhere
warmer, but it was never something
they were serious about.
After all, Nitteberg was born and
raised on the shore of Lake Poinsett
near the sleepy town of Estelline.
And in the 40 years since he started
Nitteberg Construction, he and his
community have supported one
another in a special way.
After graduating high school, Nit-
teberg drove a truck for a company
for a while before attending voca-
tional school and becoming a me-
chanic for a couple of years. "Ever
since I was a kid, I always enjoyed
taking things apart," he says.
But he was eventually drawn to
the driver's seat of heavy equip-
ment and enjoyed working with
dirt. "Part of it is the challenge, I
guess," Nitteberg says. "I kind of
feel like a race car driver. Once it's
in their blood, it's always in there."
In 1974 he bought a cheap used
contractor of the year
|
by Wayne Grayson
|
WayneGrayson@randallreilly.com
Gale Nitteberg has always felt
right at home inside the cab.
Small town community
ties provide the
framework for growth
