(L-R) are Dale Gessell, Nortrax vice president Midwest; Tim Murphy, Nortrax president; and Matt Hanson, Nortrax general manager.

Local officials joined together with Nortrax employees and the company's honored guests to officially break ground on the new Nortrax John Deere Construction and Forestry dealership in Merrill, Wis.

“Today, in breaking ground on new Nortrax facility in Merrill, Wis., we are showing a vote of confidence in northern Wisconsin and the strength and long term opportunities of construction and forestry markets in our Midwest region. We have many longtime customers in this region and we are excited to be building a facility that will significantly enhance our ability to do what we do best; help our customers to be productive and profitable by offering the best equipment and support in the industry,” said Tim J. Murphy, president and CEO of Nortrax.

While the company has made significant investments in existing facilities in the Midwest region over the course of the past 17 years, this will be the first new construction in the region for Nortrax, a John Deere dealership which operates in 47 locations throughout the United States and Canada. The new facility will be 22,500 sq. ft. (2,090 sq m) with a 10-bay service center designed to easily accommodate the larger and expansive product line offered by John Deere. There will be a greatly expanded parts warehouse and a product support and technology showroom. This new facility will have easy access to the U.S. Highway 51/139, state Highways 17, 64 and 107.

“We picked Merrill as the place to expand, as it is centrally located and easily accessible for our customers and appropriately located to our other operations in the region. In addition to our customers, the new store will provide our employees with the tools, facilities and training capabilities to perform at their best. We have an excellent team in place with many years of industry knowledge that will be of great value to our customers in this market,” said Dale Gessell, vice president of Nortrax' Midwest region. The new location is on schedule to open for business in early spring 2017.

In attendance for the ground breaking were Dave Johnson, city administrator; Bill Bialecki, mayor; Jim Borysenko, project manager of REI Engineering Inc. of Wausau; Ryan Andresen, senior project manager and Tim Pancratz, field manager, both of Russell Construction; Robert Miller, John Deere senior facilities engineer; Rose Wich, Great Lakes Timber Professionals association manager; Heather Zimmer, communications coordinator, and Jeff Bean and Aaron Burmeister, board members. Joining from Nortrax in addition to President Murphy and Gessell, were Ed Sabey, Tom Fox, Ryan Castellion and Bruce Stiteley, all territory managers; Matt Hanson, general manager; Andy McMillion, inside sales representative; Kelly Ahlers, parts manager; Jeremy Miicke, parts lead; and Randy Woodford, service manager.

For more information, visit www.nortrax.com.

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