St. Paul Utilities (SPU) was founded in 1976 by Paul Behr. The company was initially established with only a tractor backhoe. Its service was providing sewer and water to residential homes in and around the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area. In 1990, Mike Leahy Sr. was hired as an operator. Together, Paul and Mike Sr. expanded SPU's services to small commercial projects.  

By 1994, Mike Leahy Sr. moved from the field into the office as the estimator and project manager. Here, he developed many great relationships and an outstanding reputation of quality work for St. Paul Utilities. During his 18 year tenure at SPU, the company grew steadily and several new employees were hired. Mike Sr. retired in 2008 with over 40 years in the industry.

In 2013, founder Paul Behr, decided to retire and sold the company to longtime employee Mike Leahy Jr.  Mike began as a laborer for St. Paul Utilities in the 80's working alongside his father and many other former employees.  He left the industry after college for a short period to obtain his life dream of being a police officer, where he spent 5 years on patrol in Illinois.  After marrying his wife and having children, Mike decided to move back to his home state to raise his family and return to work with his father at SPU. 

​​Foreman, Jeff Betow, worked for the company for over 20 years.  Jeff retired in 2016.  Jeff’s sons, Nate and Dusty, are company leaders as foremen.  In 2015, longtime foreman, Greg Wipper retired with over 20 years of service.  Sadly, Greg passed away of a hard fought battle with cancer in 2018.  His son, Garrett, currently works as a pipe layer. Nine other employees have been with the company for over 10 years.  SPU honored employee, Dusty Bazewicz, for 20 years of loyalty in December of 2016.

Because of the leadership of management and the talent of employees, SPU has grown to provide utility installation, manhole and sewer rehabilitation, emergency water and sewer repair, grading, and pipejacking to the commercial sewer and water industry.