Alida– A new office and shop has sprung up just north of Alida. No, it’s not another oilpatch shop, but rather an organization that has benefitted from the oilpatch – the RM of Reciprocity.
And inside the shop, putting trim on the windows, one could find Harry Laurent driving finishing nails with his cordless nailgun.
Laurent is the owner of Arcola Building Supplies Ltd., and mayor of Arcola. On top of that, he’s the one-man contracting firm, Harry Laurent Construction Ltd.
Laurent has built many buildings in the oilfield over the years, including in recent years a substantial shop near Carnduff. But there’s not much building happening in the oilpatch today.
“It is what it is. We’ve done well with the patch,” he said.
That said, interest in new construction these days is pretty much zero.
“We’re not even getting a phone call to question. They used to price out before – speculating. The speculating’s gone,” he said.
These two buildings for the RM of Reciprocity will allow the municipality to use its old shop in town to become their fire hall, according to Marilyn Larson, RM administrator.
“We just finished on a project for Coderre Construction in Stoughton, a gravel-hauling outfit,” he said.
Laurent acts as the general contractor, but he subcontracts everything else, from cement work to framing to finishing. “On my crew, I hire all my subtrades. I’m myself and one or two,” he said.
“We try to hire local people, i.e. if we’re doing a shop in Carnduff, we’ll hire a Carnduff electrician and plumber.”
Laurent does interior finishing, including cabinets and millwork. He has an extensive shop for that purpose in Arcola.
Having such a lean operation has its benefits during lean times, with minimal overhead. It’s a model that’s worked well enough that his son, Wade, has modelled his own business, Wade Laurent Construction Ltd., of Regina, on it.
“He’s a one-man operation. He hires trades and supervises,” Laurent said of his son.
He has an affinity for Alida, since there’s a deep family tie to the community. “My great-grandfather came from Alsace-Lorraine in France. He came here from Melita with oxen to Alida, and that’s where they set up.”
This happened during the First World War, when Alsace-Lorraine was invaded by Germany.
That great-grandfather had mineral rights on land that one day would become worth a lot of money, but personal issues led to him losing it, and the rest is history.
Harry Laurent Construction Ltd. may be history, too. He said, “We’ve had a good run,” but added, “I’m thinking of shutting it down.
“I bought a piece of property up north. I’ll build a shack up there,” he concluded.
