Hi-Line Rental holds customer appreciation day

Hi-Line Rental held its first Customer Appreciation Day Wednesday to celebrate the community and its customers who helped in making Hi-Line Rental successful, said Karl Anderson, an employee for Hi-Line Rental and Montana State University-Northern student.

"We truly appreciate our customers and we want them to know that we appreciate their business, and this is kind of our way of giving back," said Anderson.

Hi-Line Rental, located at 3810 U.S. Highway 2 West, has been open for around a year, opening in spring of 2017.

"We couldn't ask for a better community," said Shea Carroll, co-owner of Hi-Line Rental.

He added that it had been a pretty decent day and the goal of the Customer Appreciation Day was to bring folks in.

The lunch barbecue was catered by Spud's Grub Hut and the breakfast treats where from Infinity Bake Shoppe.

Carroll said he had originally met his wife, who is from Lewistown, while they were both students at Washington State University. They bought into Lewistown Rentals, which is owned by her father, and last year moved from Washington to Havre to open Hi-Line Rental as a sister company.

He said they hope to expand again and plan to open another store in Glasgow.

Carroll added that the company has grown greatly within one year and the company has six employees not including himself. He said he has a fantastic crew and in the one year they have been open added an additional member to the team.

The company adapts to the needs of the community, providing equipment to agricultural producers, contractors, and the average homeowner, he said

Hi-Line Rental, in addition to the food, also had a game available for the community to compete in, with the prize being a $250 gift card to Hi-Line Rental. The game was to operate a 35G Mini Excavator to grab three tennis balls that were set on three separate traffic comes and drop the balls into a oil drum.

Jon Currie, owner of Bear Paw Lawn Care and Landscaping, was one the the competitors in the contest.

He said he had fun overall with the game and that the entire event was pretty good.

Currie added that he usually uses Hi-Line Rental once a week, alternating between them and Havre Rental. He said all of Hi-Line Rentals equipment is pretty new and he has had no problems with them in the time he has been a customer.

"They take good care of me," Currie said.

Tori Markous, wife of Hi-Line Rental Shop Foreman Matthew Markous, watched as her husband and her son, Matthew Joseph Markous, 3, worked the excavator together picking up the balls and dropping them in the drum.

"I want to dig a big hole," Matthew said.

Matthew Markous said Hi-Line Rental covers everything from the average homeowner to the larger agriculture producers and contractors. If anyone has any questions, they are always free to call, he added.

If anything breaks down, he said, they will get over to the site and fix it.