By Ed Shannon, staff writer

HOLLANDALE &8212; Coping with excess water is something that&8217;s a part of the Dutch heritage. And in the area around Hollandale, which was once a part of a large wetland or shallow lake, Loverink Drainage has been working with this challenge for 55 years.

This firm started in 1953 when a Hollandale area farmer named Jack Loverink tried to get someone to put in a tile line to drain a lowland part of his farm. After waiting for two years, Jack&8217;s 17-year-old son Jim used money he&8217;s earned working for others to purchase a small tiling machine.

The son soon solved his father&8217;s field drainage problem. When several neighbors saw what the younger Loverink had done, they asked him to come with his tiling machine and do some drainage jobs on their farms. This was the starting point for Loverink Drainage.

&8220;I&8217;m still tiling for the neighbors,&8221; Jim said.

At this point in his life Jim had the potential for a future business. However, this high school education had already been disrupted by farm work for several relatives. As a result, Jim decided to quit school in the 11th grade.

&8220;My mother said I&8217;d always be a ditch digger,&8221; he said.

Over the years, Loverink Drainage has grown from the small tiling machine to a larger track machine, to a &8220;ZOR&8221; plow crawler with attached laser equipment. In addition to farm drainage, the firm installs pumping systems, sewer systems and water lines with backhoe equipment, augers under roads or railroad beds, excavates basements, has dragline equipment for drainage ditches and fish ponds and even plows snow in the winters. Jim later invented the maxi-roller device to unroll coils of plastic tiles, a hydraulic boom for lowering large concrete tile, and an in-line pump for farm drainage.

One project the firm takes pride in is preparing the grounds for the present Maple Island Ball Park.

&8220;The farmers provided the fuel for our equipment, &8220; Jim explained.

&8220;We used our laser to level the field,&8221; he added.

This firm, incidentally, was the third in the state to use a laser device in their operations.

Jim and Genevieve (&8220;Vivie&8221;) Vande Kamp, also of Hollandale, were married on Aug. 16, 1957, at the famous Little Brown Church near Nashua, Iowa.

&8220;My wife has only lived a mile and a half from where she was born,&8221; Jim said.

Their first child, Lee, had this comment about his father: &8220;He&8217;s my best friend and mentor and taught me how to run the equipment since I was age 12.&8221;

This father-son team say they have 90 years of combined experience in the drainage business. And enhancing their Dutch heritage in Hollandale, the Loverink firm is located on Zuyder Zee Avenue.

&8220;Being a ditch digger means you&8217;ll always be in the hole,&8221; Lee said.

He&8217;s a 1976 graduate of Albert Lea High School, then attended Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, Calif., for two years. This was followed by a wintery three months at the post office in Caledonia. Since that time Lee has been working with his father.

And in the spring of 2007 came a change in the ownership of Loverink Drainage when Lee took over this firm from his father, Jim.

During the winter months this firm repairs water mains and sewer lines, plus doing snow plowing and removal for churches, businesses and homes, mainly in Hollandale.

Lee and Jim say the spring tiling season is somewhat short; the fall season is longer.

&8220;Most years we laid 55 miles of cement or clay tile by hand,&8221; Jim commented.

During their digging project in the fields of a former wetland and shallow lake around Hollandale and Maple Island, the Loverinks have found what they call &8220;super bison&8221; bones. One of the skulls of these ancient animals went to the University of Missouri for research. Another of the skulls is now in Lee&8217;s home.

A change for the Loverink operations has been from concrete tile to the lighter plastic type. This plastic tile comes from a plant in Hayfield, plus suppliers in Rose Creek and New Richland.

One special assignment is part of the memories for this father-son team. It came in 1993 for AT&T with repairs to an optic cable line near Farmington which had been damaged by a flood. For their services the Loverinks were awarded a special plaque by AT&T.;

The Loverink name is well known in the Hollandale area for more than just drainage. Jim&8217;s wife, Vivie, became a stay-at-home mother for their children until 1979 when she started working as substitute rural mail carrier. In 1982 she became the regular carrier on the 53-mile route out of the Hollandale Post Office until retirement in 2006.

On the sidewalk in front of Hollandale&8217;s Old Time Cafe is a bench with the

Loverink name on it. And on the interior walls of this cafe are several sets of framed photos based on the early 1920s when large dredging equipment was used to start the drainage of the wetlands and shallow lake in this part of Freeborn County. Some of the old photos are also based on the era eight decades ago when the town of Hollandale was created.

Jim says these photos were found in 1979 when he and Vivie were cleaning out the attic of the brick building near Hollandale&8217;s main intersection which once used for the Christian School. Some of the photos went to the cafe and others are now on the walls of the

Loverink Drainage office.

There are &8220;one and half dozen&8221; children in the Loverink family, according to Jim. This may sound like this is a really large family of 18 children. In reality, it turns out to be a family of seven children; Lee and his six brothers and sisters.

Lee and his wife Jodi live near Geneva Lake and have two children. Jayne and Joyce are twins. Jayne DeJong lives in Blaine and has four children, and Joyce Van Gorp has two children and lives in Mesa, Ariz. Michael Loverink has two children and resides in Juneau, Alaska. Kae Birchard-Loverink lives in Delta, Colo. Sue Buchner resides in La Crosse, Wis. And Lance, the youngest son, lives near Geneva Lake and has been the maintenance man for the City of Clarks Grove for about seven years.

Jim says there are 10 grandchildren who all have last names which reflect their Dutch heritage.