Clark's Heavy Equipment Sales & Repair

Ronnie's story, continued...

 

Established in 1981 by Ronnie Clark who graduated high school in 1967 and served our country in Vietnam from 1968-1969.  After that Ronnie then went to work for Alban Cat under a VA support program, learning and receiving training towards a Journeyman's qualification recognized by the state of Virginia for heavy equipment repair.

 

Later on in his career's infancy, Ronnie went on to work out of the operating engineer's union local 77 Washington D.C., while there he worked for J.F. Shay as an air tool tecnician.  While at J.F. Shay one of Ronnie's responsibilities was rebuilding Wagner ST-8's for the purpose of re-sale by the company.

 

After J.F. Shay Ronnie then went on to work for metro track, a company that was heavily involved in the building of the infrastucture that keeps Washington, D.C. going today.  While with this company, it was Ronnie's responsibility to maintain all equipment used at the jobsite.

 

Once the metro track Job was completed Ronnie moved on to work for Carraro Construction building a 150 acre shopping mall in Fredricksburg, Virginia.  A machine used on this job was the 657 Scraper, one of those lost its transmission.  Carraro was ready to send it to the dealer, when Ronnie intervened and convinced the project manager that he could rebuild the transmission and save the company a bundle of money.  This is where Ronnie started realizing the benefits of being in business for himself.  While working at this location, Ronnie had his first service truck on lease, to Carraro Construction, a 1978 International 3/4 ton pickup.

 

After completing the project with Carraro, Ronnie went to work for Soletanche & Rodeo, a company that digs deep foundations for superstructures.  Here Ronnie was a master mechanic overseeing all the maintenance on every piece of equipment used on the job.  On this particular job Ronnie was sent to Wheeling, West Virginia where a concrete wall was causing problems on an interstate highway.  The company had to tie back the wall to prevent it from falling on motorists.

 

When the Soletanche & Rodeo job ended, Ronnie was laid off due to Christmas shutdown.  The company would not entertain paid time off during this time, so Ronnie made the decision that nobody would decide for him again if there was going to be food on the table to feed his family, and Clark's Welding and Mechanical Services was formed.  Business cards were printed and within a week, Ronnie began receiving requests to make repairs for Stafford County Landfill and Public Works.  Shortly after that the city of Fredricksburg, Spotsylvania County and Caroline county landfills all requested the services provided by Ronnie.

 

And that brings us to where we are today, in 1987 Ronnie decided to move back to Vermont for a better quality of life for his family.

Here in Vermont Ronnie has worked for  Neil Mckenzie talc mining, Luzenac America, The State of Vermont, Zaluzny Construction, many towns in the state of Vermont, F.W. Whitcomb's, U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and many many private construction companies in and around Vermont.