End of an era for Erv’s Service

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VELVA - Although a local Velva business will soon be coming to an end after 69 years of service to the community, the acquisition will ultimately allow drivers, especially truck drivers, to receive better service in the coming years when one new convenience store will take the place of two older ones.

Farmers Union Oil of Velva, Butte, Drake and Martin, which recently celebrated its 75th year, has acquired Erv's Service, a service station better known to Velva residents as Star City Motor. Cory Schmaltz, general manager of Farmers Union, says the sale between two of the oldest companies in town started out as small talk between himself and Laurence Anderson, the third-generation owner of Erv's Service.

The business started with Anderson's grandfather Eric, was passed down to his father Erv, then was finally handed to Anderson. Schmaltz says he has a lot of respect for the Anderson family and all they have been able to accomplish in 69 years of business.

"I give a lot of hats off to Erv and his family for carrying on," Schmaltz said.

Schmaltz said Anderson brought up the idea of selling the family business because he was growing tired of the daily grind of running the business by himself with limited part-time help and the financial cost of keeping up to date with the many government regulations that come along with running a service station.

"He had a wrecker service, so after he put in eight, nine, 10 hours a day down there, then he'd get called out late at night for a wrecker service," Schmaltz said. "So he was busy all the time."

Schmaltz noted that he has a lot of good employees who help him run Farmers Union, and that makes a big difference. While Schmaltz has to take the heat if anything goes wrong, there are others to help do the work. Schmaltz says he can easily see how the job must have worn on Anderson because he had to take the heat and do just about all of the work as well.

Schmaltz says it's kind of ironic that a 75-year-old company is buying out a 69-year-old company, especially considering he and Anderson weren't all that close in high school.

The two talked back and forth about the idea for two years before Anderson finally decided he wanted to sell. For his part, Schmaltz said he was interested in purchasing the business because of all the truck traffic generated by the rejuvenated energy and agriculture industries.

The current location of the Farmers Union Oil Convenience Store, which is right across U.S. Highway 52 from Erv's Service in Velva, makes it difficult for large trucks and semis to pull in for gas when the store is busy because of the cramped parking lot.

The new C-Store that will go up where Erv's Service now stands will have a special lane that will allow large trucks to easily pull in, gas up, and get out. As it now stands, Schmaltz says he can't take advantage of the phenomenal amount of truck traffic along the highway because of the limited space for trucks the current C-Store provides.

"I can't take care of them. I can't take care of those semis because our parking lot is so limited," Schmaltz said. "Last September I was sitting out there and kind of got out to visit with some of the truck drivers. On any given day from the month of September and on for the next few months after that, anywhere from 200 to 300 trucks a day (drove by), and I was lucky enough if I got maybe four or five of those to swing into my C-Store for the simple reason they couldn't get in."

The deadline for Anderson to move out of the location is Oct. 14. After that, Schmaltz said Farmers Union is hoping to demolish the old building by the end of this year and let the area sit until next year to allow the ground to settle before beginning construction on a new C-Store that will replace the current location across the highway.

He says there is a possible second phase to their plans that might have them move the shop down to that location as well, but that is a ways in the future and nothing is set in stone at this point.

Above all, Schmaltz stresses that he respects Anderson greatly and was in no way trying to make Farmers Union bigger at the cost of a local competitor.

"I'm not in the business to take out another business such as Erv's or even Conoco in Velva here. There's enough (business) for us to go around. The situation is, as Erv's sat down there, they really couldn't bring semis in, either," Schmaltz said. "So somebody had to make a move, because we were all losing the business there."

Schmaltz says now that it's a done deal, he's kind of freaking out about how he's going to pull it all together. There's a lot of work that needs to be done between now and when construction begins in the fall of next year.

"There's so much stuff to go ahead with now before we actually start throwing up timbers," he said.

He hopes to have the new C-Store complete sometime in 2010.

Although he does have some ideas in the back of his head about what could go in the new C-Store, Schmaltz says the only thing confirmed is that it will be bigger and better than the old store.

While he isn't exactly sure about what the new C-Store will consist of, Schmaltz is sure that he won't have a shortage of ideas to consider. He says he is always thinking about what he can do to help the company prosper in the future as its general manager.

Although this is a far cry from his old job as a drummer in a successful country-rock band that traveled all over North American opening for acts such as Clint Black, Sawyer Brown, Pam Tillis and Alan Jackson, Schmaltz says it's a challenge he relishes after a heart attack forced him to give up his life on the stage in exchange for life in an office.

And though it might seem to most that his current job has nothing in common with his old life on the road, Schmaltz says that couldn't be further from the truth.

"A lot of people don't look at it (music) as the fact that it's a job. It was a job, and on top of that you're responsible for, other than yourself, four other people out there on the road," Schmaltz said. "Well now I'm responsible for 55 people, and probably heading for a second heart attack. I'm not sure."

Even though Anderson is selling his family business to move on to other things, Schmaltz says he has accomplished a lot and should view his time as the owner of Erv's Service as nothing other than a complete success.

"He has something to be proud of, and that is a three-generation company that he ran," Schmaltz said.