“Customer service is our No. 1 asset and No. 1 goal,” said Rick Hofreiter, general manager of Colville Inc. “If we don't have it, we will tell you who does and where to find them.”

Colville specializes in fuel delivery, offers bottled gas, a large inventory of raw steel, solid waste disposal, and recycling for oil-based or oil-saturated objects.

Originally started by Bud Helmericks, who raised his family to be commercial fishermen on the Colville River Delta, the company has grown into a conglomeration of oil field infrastructure support businesses.

“This is the American dream come true on the edge of the Arctic Ocean,” said Mark Helmericks, son of Bud Helmericks. Mark Helmericks is now president and chief executive of Colville Inc.

Colville grossed $38 million in 2005 and, according to Mark Helmericks, the company will surpass the $50 million mark by the end of this year.

Mark Helmericks, president and chief executive officer of Colville Inc., stands in front of the facility that has a 55-man camp, fabrication shop, fuel farm, repair shop, warehouse, solid waste storage facility and offices at Prudhoe Bay. Colville is pretty much a one-stop shop for most needs in Prudhoe Bay. PHOTO/Rob Stapleton/AJOC

“We are looking at increasing our size,” Mark Helmericks said. “We have the pad space (land at Prudhoe) and need to grow to help support the industrial activity here on the Slope.”

General manager Hofreiter agrees.

“We are experiencing a 20 to 30 percent growth pattern, sometimes on a monthly basis,” he said.

Mark Helmericks took control of the company in April 2006 when he leveraged a buy-out of his brother, Jeff, and his sister-in-law.

Mark Helmericks had been running the company up until 2000 when he took a position in Washington, D.C., as the managing director of a subsidiary corporation affiliated with the Rampart Village Corp.

With Colville Inc. as the umbrella corporation, three entities — Colville Solid Waste Service, Prudhoe Bay Alaska General Store and U.S. Post Office, and Brooks Range Supply — make up the network that supports business in Deadhorse and beyond.

Colville Inc. operations manager Gary Cooper has seen the company grow as activity on the Slope has increased. PHOTO/Rob Stapleton/AJOC

“The increase in the price of oil, and the prospects for a gas line, and the shorter windows of construction due to environmental warming over the last few years have really ramped up the interest in Prudhoe Bay,” Helmericks said. “More construction is moving away from the spine network. Things are expanding westward and eastward.”

Hofreiter and operations manager Gary Cooper say as the work increased on the Slope, so didColville's operations.

“We are making a new delivery truck for ultra-low sulfur diesel deliveries, and we also need another truck for aviation jet fuel,” Cooper said.

“This is as busy as it used to be in the '70s,” Helmericks said.

The Helmericks family name is well known on the North Slope, and their house and airstrip were called Nuiqsut by the Inupiat in the days before there was a village of Nuiqsut. The village of Nuiqsut is located to the south and on the opposite side of the Colville River of the Helmericks' homestead.

“We had the only airfield on the Slope near Prudhoe Bay, so everything pretty much came through our yard,” Helmericks said.

Recounting the days of Canadian Barges from Hay River landing on their beach and ice islands built for wintertime drilling, the Helmericks' property was one time the center of activity on the Slope.

“We were the de-facto hub during the 1960s and '70s,” Helmericks said. “At that time we were called the Arctic Tern Fish and Freight Co.”

But things haven't always gone smoothly for the Helmericks or Colville Inc. A long battle with the North Slope Borough over solid waste and land fill issues held the business at bay during the 1980s. The dispute wasn't settled until 1999, according to Helmericks.

Most recently, a family dispute over how the company was being run fractured the business and caused majority shareholders to ask Mark to come back and take over from brother Jeff.

Helmericks predicts that the company's expansion won't limit itself to Alaska alone.

“We have the resources and skills to act as an international support resource for projects across the Arctic, from Russia to Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk and the MacKenzie River Delta in Canada,” said Helmericks.

Helmericks' affection for the Arctic is detected in the gleam of his eye when he tells stories of his childhood, growing up between the Colville and Sagavanirktok rivers.

“I love this country, and I am very proud of the company and my employees,” Helmericks said. “They are the ones who really deserve the credit for our success.”