For nearly 40 years many farmers and ranchers in central Nebraska have relied on Badgley Well Service for their agricultural water needs. That service will continue but will now be under new ownership.

In 1968, Merlin Badgley - known to most as Leroy moved his family back to Custer County and the area where he had grown up. He was doing some construction work and farming.

“He bought a trencher to put some lines and hog pens up out at the farm, and somebody found out he had a trencher so he started doing trenching plus his construction work,” his son Cliff Badgley recalled. “It just kinda grew into more construction work such as footings for buildings, he built and remodeled houses, put up grain bins and steel buildings. Over the years I got involved and was helping his crews put pipelines in when I was 10 or 11-years-old.”

The last steel building Leroy and his crew put up was in 1982, and the next year Cliff headed off to college at Southeast Community College where he earned his degree as a farm diesel technician. In 1986, Leroy got into the well business following the death of Bill Lynch.

“He had somebody call him and wanted some well work done, and he said he didn’t do well work. The guys said he better start, because they needed a well man in this country,” Cliff explained.

At that time Neil Hendricks was working for Bill Lynch, so Leroy had a conversation with Neil and the two of them decided to get licensed and go into the well business. Leroy purchased a well truck from Bernard Nichols of Berwyn, hired Neil, and went to work.

Cliff returned to the farm in 1987, after doing some over-the-road trucking for a time. “I stuck around and we got busy in the well business,” he shared. “It was going along well with the pipelines. Then when my dad got sick in 1998, we found out he had a brain tumor, I started talking about taking over the business. He wasn’t really sure if I needed to do that or not. He thought I needed to go find me a 5-day-a-week job so I could spend time with my family. I said, ‘Well, I could dad. But you’ve got something going here and I want to see if I can maintain it.”

Leroy passed away on March 31, and on April 1, Cliff signed the contract to take over the business.

After 25 years of working together, Neil decided to retire last spring. Cliff came to the conclusion that it would also be a good time for him to transition out of the business.

“It’s been 50 years that I have helped do work out of this building,” Cliff said, referring to the downtown Oconto location.

Leroy had started his business out of his house and began renting the Oconto building from a local co-op. Having a storefront, Leroy added hardware to his inventory, something Cliff has gravitated away from due to the cost of goods and slow sales.

“I just decided if Neil’s going to retire I will finish up my jobs that I’ve got lined up and move on to something else. I’m not retiring myself - I call it retreading,” said Cliff.

Cliff said he could not have had the success he has enjoyed at this business without his dedicated employees. Along with Neil, Kent Dittmar worked for Badgley Well for more than 20 years. “He was a big asset to the company,” said Cliff.

Rocky Dockweiler has purchased the well truck and inventory from Cliff and is working on getting his licensing to continue the well service. Dockweiler already does pipelines and repairs stock tanks, so the transition will be pretty seamless.

“It was kind of a blessing when he moved to Oconto because I couldn’t keep up with all this stuff anyway,” Cliff said of Dockweiler.

He said there are fewer and fewer guys who do this kind of work anymore, especially work on windmills. “It’s hard work, it’s not for the timid. The summer is your crunch time and you gotta go, and that is hard for vacations.”

While Cliff is not quite sure what is next for him, he does know it will be something in agriculture. He plans to help his son-in-law with hauling corn. “I told my wife I need to get a job. I can’t stop working. I plan to keep my building in town because someday I would like to do some woodwork,” Cliff continued.

“It’s a slow transition. I’m just selling stuff as I go and finishing up some jobs,” Cliff said. “My retirement is to keep working. I’m not going to travel the worldheck, I haven’t seen Nebraska yet!”

“On behalf of the Badgley family, and my parents who started the company, I just want to thank all of our loyal customers and patrons over the years.”