10 years after tornado, business thriving in St. Nazianz

Last decade has seen expansions of facilities, sales, staffs

By Charlie Mathews, Herald Times Reporter

ST. NAZIANZ — While several businesses suffered damage in the storm of 2000, only one failed to re-open.

"Mother Nature fired us that day," said Sarah Carroll.  She and her husband, Dan, owned Village Restorations, 109 W. Main St, as a furniture restoration shop and antique furniture store.

But while May 12, 2000, was the closing date for Village Restorations, it was just the first year in a decade that has seen several St. Nazianz businesses begin or expand.

Mark Riesterer opened Riesterer Machine, 104 W. Liberty Drive, just after New Year's in 2000.

His business designs, builds and installs custom automated production equipment for other companies, many of them in the food industry.

Sales are booming with Riesterer adding to his staff and expanding his plant with a recent 3,750-square-foot addition to its 7,500-square-foot building.

"It's all about our people and what we know," Riesterer said of his eight employees. "We have a good team of guys who have been in all walks of manufacturing and we are good at what we do.

"Our niche is we don't reinvent the wheel but (create) custom automation never been done before … that is where we shine. We are very risk management oriented and we take the risk out of custom machinery.

"We bring our customers to a comfort level before they have to commit to ordering a machine … they know it will be reliable."

Riesterer said most of his customers doing business outside Wisconsin.

A.C.E. Building Systems of Manitowoc constructed Riesterer's original building, as well as the addition, from kits made by Butler Buildings.

"A.C.E. gave us the choice of light or heavy sheet metal," Riesterer recalled of an ultimately wise decision. "When I look at the storm damage that happened around us, we didn't sustain much … the hail only created superficial dents because we chose to go heavy duty."

'Slowed us down'

Like Riesterer, Rick Christel is a native of St. Nazianz. He operates Christel Sign, 105 N. Fourth
St., with his wife, Deb.

They do vehicle lettering and pinstriping, as well as commercial signage. The business began in their home, expanded into a Valders storefront, and then in 2007 they moved into their new 6,000-square-foot building on Manitowoc County C.

"When the storm came through we were doing a lot of work for A&J Vans in Valders," Rick Christel said. "They had to deal with the hail damage to their vans first so that did slow us down."

But, since then, it has been full speed ahead for the  The three women and their approximately 20
employees do the stitching, by the thousands, on various work and recreation boots.

From 25 to 50 employees

A few hundred yards north on County C is Braun Electric, owned by Rick Braun since he and his wife,
Alecia, purchased the business started by Rick's parents in 1964.

"The storm damaged one of our walls and took the roof off our warehouse," Braun said.

He said the storm forced him to decide whether to fix one of the exterior walls or add on — Braun
chose expansion.

In the past decade, Braun Electric has added both square footage, as well as employees, with the work
force doubling from 25 to about 50 who perform electrical contracting work and much more.

Services offered include custom manure applications, custom manure hauling, rotary screen separators, sand traps, sand land construction, Soilnet polymer solutions, manure separators, agitation pumps and barn cleaners and pumps.

Braun Electric is a dealer for feeding and other agriculture systems, as well as offering concrete construction.

Specializes in short runs

While Braun Electric is a few years away from celebrating its 50th anniversary, Greg Pankratz' Heritage Aluminum & Brass Foundry, 107 W. Liberty Drive, was founded in 2002 by the former Wisconsin Aluminum Foundry employee.

Pankratz said his foundry specializes in short runs of about 100 pieces for mostly out-of-Wisconsin
customers.

He created his 15,000-square-foot plant from scratch, a more than $1 million investment in the village's tax incremental financing district.

Pankratz has lived in the village since 1992 with his wife, Peggy, who serves as the business' financial manager.

Business is on the upswing with Pankratz anticipating adding two employees to his current workforce of six.

Storm led to 'positive outcome'

Dan and Sarah Carroll continue to live in Valders, which they have called home since 1981.

But Dan opened his Village Restorations in St. Nazianz in 1994 with an emphasis on stripping and restoring furniture. In 1997, he asked Sarah quit her job and to help him out … she agreed on the condition she could start an antique shop.

Then, three years later, the storm blew through the village, "and I think we were the only business completely destroyed," Sarah said.

Once she was able to get into the village and survey the damage at their business, "I knew immediately
that was the end of it … but there was a positive outcome with a new house built on the land that had been occupied by our business and our neighbor to the east." Sarah said after three years she had "a lifetime of inventory" in the building. Dan had one customer's order in the shop. "We lost one man's grandmother's  rocking chair … he was very understanding," Sarah said.

"I think the tornado hit our building," Sarah said. "The roof was lifted right off and it was a brand new
roof. Another home's roof landed on our building and our whole second floor was gone."

She recalled caring Valders neighbors who helped board up their home, concerned the couple would
be pre-occupied with trying to salvage their St. Nazianz business.

top of page