Several generations of the Fehlhafer family live in the town of Utica, Nebraska. The population sign reads 851, and you can bet every one of them is a Fehlhafer or knows one.
Ewald Fehlhafer and his son Mike are both business owners in Utica. Ewald runs Fehlhafer Inc. and Mike runs Breeza Industrial. They keep busy all the time, and they often aim their efforts at helping the community. So, when the need for picnic tables came up at a village board meeting, the two business owners stepped up to the plate.
“There just weren’t enough picnic tables in town for any of the community gatherings,” Mike remembered. “There were all kinds of get-togethers, parties, street dances, scouting events, high school football games, and there was never enough seating.”
So, with the rest of the family gathered around the dinner table and additional input from everyone at Breeza and Fehlhafer’ s Inc., a plan to build long-lasting, portable tables was hatched.
They built four 20-foot tables made of steel and wood and were each table seats 20 people. Because regular transportation of the tables was important, a hitch was added to each table, along with a set of wheels to make them into a trailer.
“We are good at building things, and this is just what the community needed,” Mike explained. “Whenever they are needed we’ll get them cleaned up and moved to the right part of town.”
