History

Les’s Sanitation was started in 1951 by Steve Nordhagen’s dad, Lester Nordhagen. His equipment consisted of an old army pickup. The city dump was located ½ mile south of town, where garbage was dumped down a river bank and burned. The company was built on hard work and a high quality of service to his customers. Les worked very long hours and did a lot of heavy lifting.

As times changed and the distance to dump sites grew, so did the equipment. The first packer truck Lester purchased was in 1967. Steve purchased the business from his parents on October 1st, 1986, and operated the business for another 25 years. Steve continued to add equipment and to develop the company as time went on. The routes got longer, the work was still very hard and the hours even longer.

Brian Solberg purchased the business from Steve Nordhagen on August 1, 2012, and officially became L&S Systems LLC dba Les’s Sanitation. As the environmental rules for handling waste became more complex and the distance to haul became even further away, the business continued to change and evolve. Now, we have automated trucks that do most of the heavy lifting. The work isn’t as hard, but the hours are still long.

April 1, 2016, Steve Nordhagen purchased the business back and it operates as Les’s Sanitation, Inc. again. Steve “Beaver” Nordhagen, is happy to be back as owner and back doing what he loves!

The one thing that has never changed throughout all these 60 years is our commitment to provide high quality service to our customers.