In this industry, it’s perfectly fine to be a boring company
Iowa Trenchless is a full-service boring and tunneling company located in Panora. Founded in 2002 by Jason and Shari Clark, the company offers services that include auger boring, rock boring, pilot tube boring, microtunneling, pipe ramming, pipe jacking, pipe bursting, railroad crossing, and bone bit design.
Both Jason and Shari Clark are Iowa State graduates, and Jason had experience in the trenchless world doing boring and tunneling. The couple wanted to settle in Iowa and own their own tunneling company, and they ended up in Panora.
A Variety of Underground Installations
During the last 15 years, Iowa Trenchless has tackled even the toughest underground installations. Jason Clark notes, “We do boring and tunneling from 16 inches in diameter to 15 feet in diameter under roads, levies, railroad tracks, park- ing lots, rivers, creeks, and lakes.”
Projects completed by Iowa Trenchless are varied. “We work for contractors, municipalities, states, railroads, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. And our projects range from pedestrian tunnels to the installation of gas and electric lines or drainage, sewer, and water pipes,” explains Clark. He adds, “We generally stick to a geographic area within an eight-hour drive of Panora. But there have been times we’ve worked on projects much farther away, such as in Washington, DC, Sacramento, Calif. — even in Canada.”
Growing Company, Growing
Communications Needs
Iowa Trenchless has 20-30 field employees, depending on the time of year, in addition to an office staff of about six people. The company was the first business in the Panora Telco Business Park in 2004 and has continued to grow. It now owns more than 25 acres of land and four buildings with an approximate total square footage of 26,500. Clark says, “We just keep rolling and growing.”
Panora Telco helps this growing company and its owners stay connected with these communications solutions:
• Seven business phone lines;
• Two residential phone lines;
• FiberFast Internet
(for Iowa Trenchless and the Clark’s home);
• SecureIT antivirus and internet security software; and • 15 surveillance cameras installed by Panora Telco.
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Those 15 surveillance cameras were added to the ones previously installed by another company. Panora Telco wired Iowa Trenchless’ four buildings for the new cameras and installed the cameras and the point-to-point radios for the internet connection. Panora Telco’s technicians also set up the NVRs (network video recorders) that store the record- ings, did general finishing work, and provided instruction to Clark and members of his staff on the surveillance system. Why did Iowa Trenchless decide to expand its number of surveillance cameras and use Panora Telco for the installation? Clark replies, “There were several reasons why we chose to have more surveillance cameras installed in our buildings. First of all, the cost is coming down to have network cameras, so they’re more affordable. We also wanted to increase our level of security and have video footage available to help protect us from liability.” Responsive Service a ‘small town’ relationship with Panora Telco. I try to do business locally whenever I can get a good deal and get a good job done.” Clark appreciates the responsive service he gets from Panora Telco. “When we have trouble with one of our services, Panora Telco comes right out to take care of it. If we want a change made, they do it quickly. Right now, they’re speeding up our internet connec- tions at both Iowa Trenchless and our home,” he says. It’s great to have a local company to do business with. I’d say we have a ‘small town’relationship with Panora Telco.” — JASON CLARK, CO-FOUNDER AND OWNER, IOWA TRENCHLESS
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