A dairy farmer by trade, our founder Jerry Libolt started working with Soil Conservation Services because of his expertise with manure lagoons. Glamorous, right?

This working relationship with Soil Conservation Services got him involved in a project at a local refinery in Ferndale, Washington, which snowballed into more and more work. By the end of the decade, he had renamed Western Services to Western Refinery Services and sold off the other parts of the company to concentrate on the refinery projects.

With growth and time came a new set of challenges. WRS needed to hire more employees for office positions, and the systems needed to be digitized. Jerry recognized the importance of adapting to the times, which had been a hallmark of WRS since the beginning. He says: “I’ve always taken the approach in business that you’ve got to be willing to try. You may not know exactly how you’re going to do it, but then surround yourself with people who can help.”

In this same decade, Billy VanZanten became Jerry’s first official partner. A few years later, Ryan Likkel bought in as well.

In 2000, Jerry decided to sell his portion of the company and retire. Soon after that, Ryan’s dad was diagnosed with and passed away from lung cancer. Jerry came back so that he could spend more time with his family, and when Ryan did return full-time, they decided he should stay on to help so that Ryan could focus on growing the business.

Between 2010 and 2020, the company experienced another period of incredible growth. By the end of the decade, their numbers grew from 92 to over 200 employees. 

Jerry served as the CFO until officially retiring in 2017, and Cody Bormuth (current CFO) took on the role shortly afterward.

Today WRS employs more than 260 people and offers a wide variety of services: asphalt paving and seal-coating, civil construction, technology and design, industrial maintenance, land-leveling scrapers, UAV mapping and inspection, emergency response, demolition and processing, landscaping, and hydro excavation utility location. Who says you can’t do it all?

Ryan is now the sole owner of WRS, and he, Billy, and Cody are serving as CEO, COO, and CFO, respectively. They are excited to continue growing with the same "people first" mentality that brought WRS to where it is today.