Larry Hewitt has seen and done it all in his 50 years at the helm of Hawk River Construction in Haliburton County.
The firm is celebrating its golden jubilee this year – a testament to Hewitt’s drive, commitment and standards since starting out as a one-man operation, working out of his home on Hawk Lake beginning in 1975. Just 21 then, Hewitt bought a truck and started touting his services around the community.
“After that, we got a loader, then swapped it for a backhoe and started doing septic beds, lot clearing and that type of thing. I was completely on my own at the time, so whether the company succeeded or not was all on me,” Hewitt said.
He’d had about a decade’s worth of experience by then fixing and building things. Hewitt’s father passed away when he was 12. The eldest boy in the family, that meant most of the technical and labour-intensive jobs landed at his feet.
As a teen, he earned extra money doing odd jobs around the lake – hooking up the water for seasonal cottages, draining ahead of winter, and more.
“Whatever needed doing, I did. I got a lot of practical experience in my early years. I was largely self-taught, but picked up lots of helpful information from different people. I was always paying attention and learning,” Hewitt noted.
He took any job he could during Hawk River’s early years. By the late 1970s, he’d added a second truck and about four employees, expanding into the logging business. For years, he had workers in the bush in Huntsville, stripping and transporting trees to wherever they needed to go.
Around that time, Hewitt also secured a contract with one of the local townships to assist with a development on Haliburton Lake. That opened the door to even more business, Hewitt said, and the development of his shop, built on Mallard Road in 1984.
Hawk River is responsible for building Ross Lake Road and most of the sideroads around Percy Lake, completing that work in the early 80s. In the early 2000s, be built the 18-kilometre West Shore Road in Dysart et al.
In 2009, Hewitt spent an entire summer rebuilding a Ministry of Natural Resources dam in Opeongo River Provincial Park and, a couple of years ago, wrapped a three-year, 100-unit housing development in Dwight.
“That was our biggest project to date, a $20 million job. We had to increase our labour force,” Hewitt said. “We had about 18 people working up there around the clock.”
As he reflects on the thousands of projects completed within Haliburton County, and beyond, Hewitt said he’s most proud of the relationships he’s cultivated with customers over the years.
“We made our business on doing a lot of private work for cottages and homes in the area – the biggest thing for me is making sure we have a strong rapport with our community,” Hewitt said. “I’m also proud of the labour force we’d had. I’ve had a lot of people work for me over the years – many of them have gone on to key roles with townships in the area, or gone into business [for themselves].”
Hewitt acknowledges retirement is on the horizon – he scaled back over the summer, but has been getting out to job sites regularly through fall and early winter.
“I’m not an office person at all – I like to get my boots on the ground, that’s where I get my satisfaction,” Hewitt said, priding himself on visiting every project his company takes to ensure work is completed to Hawk River’s usual standards.
Hewitt is also passionate about community building, contributing in-kind work to dozens of projects over the years. He donated the time and materials for the recent playground expansion at J.D. Hodgson Elementary School, built most of the walkway that connects Hal High to the industrial park, and gave money for the construction of the Haliburton Highlands Outdoors Association fish hatchery on Gelert Road.
“I am a big believer that the stronger the fabric of the community, the stronger and more diverse the community will be,” Hewitt said.
