photography / Troy Boman Ken Hale (bottom right) and his son Ryan (bottom left) move dirt on the construction site of a new LDS church in Overlake on Wednesday. Fred Hale (top) sits on his couch with his dog Buffy at his feet. As part of Hale Construction, the family has built 80 LDS church buildings.

by Sarah Miley

STAFF WRITER

Take one look at an LDS church building anywhere in the Tooele Valley, and there's a pretty good chance it was built by Hale Construction.

The Grantsville-based and family-owned company, currently with three generations of Hales involved, has for about 25 years been building LDS churches throughout the Tooele Valley, as well as projects in the Salt Lake Valley and throughout Utah.

Fred Hale, 78, is co-owner of Hale Construction along with his son Ken. Ken's two sons, Ryan and Austin, and son-in-law Scott Webb, also work in the business. Up until 12 years ago, Fred's other son Craig also worked for the company. He currently lives in St. George, but still works in construction.

Fred, who worked for the Tooele Army Depot for 35 years, first got started in construction when he decided to build a house for himself.

"I started in housebuilding because I was too cheap to pay someone else to do it for me," he said with a smile.

He also built several other homes in the valley, which he said gave him the experience he needed.

But Hale Construction wasn't started until years later in 1977, when his two sons, Ken and Craig, were graduated from high school.

The family company began building pre-sold homes, and have since built about 200 homes. They would build several homes a year, before they started building churches in about 1980.

They got so busy they didn't have time to build houses and just stuck with churches. The first church they built was a stake center in Grantsville.

Since then they have built 80 LDS churches, as well as done several remodels, Fred said. At least 10 churches have been built in Tooele, Grantsville, Erda and Stansbury Park combined.

The farthest project they have worked on was a remodel in Loa by Fish Lake and a new church in Bicknell.

They are currently working on three church building projects -- in Lehi, Riverton and Overlake. They just recently completed a remodel at the 4th/14th ward building in Tooele.

In the beginning, the company, which now includes about five employees besides the family employees, did all the work, including framing. But once they got too much work, they hired subcontractors, Fred said.

He said the Church is very particular about the type of work done.

"They want excellent product and as cheap as you can do it," he said.

Fred said they like to keep three or four projects going at the same time, but don't take on too big of a load.

"I don't want our company to get overloaded so we can do a good job with what we do," Fred said.

In addition to Hale Construction, the family owns another company called H&H Excavation, which started several years ago.

Ken said the boys wanted to get into the excavating part of things, which is one of the reasons why they started it up. He added he has no doubt in his mind that his sons and son-in-law will carry on the family business.

Fred said the construction business has been very good for the family and has given the boys the opportunity to have their own homes.

"It's been really quite a joy," Ken said of working with family. "You hear so many people say working with family is so difficult, and it's just been absolutely wonderful."

Fred said he credits living a long full life to not retiring and keeping busy.

"That's all you know how to do is work," said his wife Elaine, with a laugh.

She relayed a story about people inquiring when Fred is going to retire and finally get to do what he wants to do. Elaine said, "But he is doing what he likes to do."

Fred said, "What the devil would someone do if they retired?"

"I feel like I've had an excellent life," he said. "The Lord has treated me a lot better than I deserve."

He said he's sure his posterity will continue on in the family construction business. And, with five great-grandsons and a great-granddaughter on the way, there's sure to be plenty of family to keep work going.

swest@tooeletranscript.com