Chop Shop in Clearbrook
Driving on Highway 92 between Clearbrook and Gonvick you should notice a very clever way to advertise ones business. A Peterbilt tractor sits on the side of the road with Chop Shop Welding and Repair sign on the front.
Josh Anderson, a 1997 graduate of Clearbrook High School, worked in logging and for other people and decided to venture out on his own. He has been kept busy doing motors, rear ends, brakes and tires on trucks and trailers. He also does trailer restoration.
He has almost two months of work backed up but when a person comes in and needs something in order to keep running he completes that and then on to his next project with a smile.
Jim Anderson, no relation to Josh, from Jag Trucking in Bagley came in with a slow leak on one of his tires. Anderson had to go to St. Hilaire and pick up a load and then take it to Cloquet before his day was done and Josh fixed his tire so that he could be on the road again.
Josh was telling about a customer who had called back and could not get the lug nuts off of his tire rim. Josh thought that was good that he made them tight enough so that they would have to come back again.
Josh and Viola have two children: Gabby (Gabriel) 8 and Trevor 11. Josh misses his son Trevor who was his go for this and go for that while he was doing his repair work. They both started school again at Clearbrook-Gonvick. The family lives in a house on the same property as the shop buildings.
He was asked how his wife Viola keeps his t-shirts so white for each day of work. He said that was the easy part as he puts on a new one every day.
Another unique sign that Josh has on the front of his shop is "Chop Shop Welding and Repair" with the front end of a 1973 Peterbilt truck. The lights are solar so that when it gets dark the headlights come on. It was heavy to get up there and they are there to stay.
He has been busy pouring a 28’ by 54’ cement slab to extend his shop area but has been too busy to get anything more done with that.
He uses wood to heat up his buildings and on the east side of his property he has a row of logs which also keeps out the east wind that comes across from the vacant fields west of the school in Clearbrook.
States require that motor vehicles undergo a safety inspection by a certified inspector. Josh is one that completed the Department of Transportation course and is qualified for the job.