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From the ground up

Skyline Construction sprouted from Mark Arthofer’s decision to build a pond on his family’s farm. “We had a huge pile of dirt, so I put an ad in the paper and started selling the dirt,” Arthofer says. The year was 1999 in the midst of the housing boom.

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“On nights and weekends, I was delivering loads of dirt to people,” he says. “Then they asked if I had a way to spread it out. So I said, ‘Yeah, I can spread it out.’ ”

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That turned into people asking him to provide more services, such as seeding, building retaining walls and pouring concrete.

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“That’s honestly how it started ... because we built a pond,” he says.

That call to action to answer customers’ needs by providing more services is what propelled Dubuque, Iowa- based Skyline into the snow business.

In 2000, Arthofer left his day job and incorporated the company.