LIFESTYLES
Making a
wool fashion
statement/2C
Citadel
spins new
sound/3C
WEEKEND, JANUARY 21-22, 2017
Kids’ snow
sports take
patience/8C
E
K
I
L
S
S
NO BUSINE
S
S
E
N
I
S
U
B
SNOW
Story by JADE MCDOWELL ♦ Photos by E.J. HARRIS ♦ East Oregonian
C
anceled
appoint-
ments and below-av-
erage
customer
counts have piled
up with the snow
for many Eastern
Oregon businesses
this winter. But for a few industries
the unusually severe winter has
served as a windfall.
“We have gotten at least, if not
near, double the service calls we
got last year during this time,” said
Johnny Pollick, owner of Elite
Heating & Air in Hermiston.
The consistency of the cold
“really does take a toll on the HVAC
systems,” he said, resulting in busy,
busy days for his technicians. Lately
they’ve been staying out on the job
until 9 or 10 p.m. trying to keep as
few people as possible from having
to spend more nights than they have
to in a cold house.
The increase in service calls —
and their urgency, as people worry
about pipes freezing — has brought
in more business, but Pollick said it
has also increased payroll costs by
30 to 40 percent. It also makes life
difficult on the technicians as they try
to navigate a service van through the
snow or fix an outdoor component in
sub-zero temperatures.
“It takes a toll on the technicians
themselves, trying to stay warm and
still be able to work on the system,”
Pollick said. “A lot of times they
can’t wear gloves to do what they
need to.”
When pipes do freeze, it brings
extra business for O So Kleen,
which repairs and cleans up water
and fire damage. Owner Dave Smith
said they usually get two to three
calls a week, but toward the end of
December they got 17 water calls in
a week, and have gotten 20 in the last
10 days.
“We’ve been working 10- to
12-hour days,” he said. “... the
severity of these has been way
bigger, too.”
Fire suppression systems in
many area businesses, as far away
as Wheeler County and as large as
ConAgra, have burst and flooded
entire floors of buildings, which takes
longer than the typical “dishwasher
broke and flooded the kitchen.”
Smith said the day before he had
gone out to a home in Pendleton that
had six inches of water throughout
the entire basement that had been
sitting for days after a pipe broke
while the owner was out of town.
He said even though it’s a business,
he and his staff really do care about
and feel sorry for the people whose
homes they help pump out and try to
salvage sentimental items.
“We get hugs, we get tears of joy,”
he said. “It’s pretty amazing but it’s a
fulfilling job.”
The snow and ice have also
brought extra business for auto
body shops. Every time someone
hits a patch of ice wrong and slides
into a parked car, that’s two more
customers for the industry.
Jesus Jimenez of Custom Colli-
sion and Auto Body in Hermiston
said the shop is booked almost three
weeks out, and he’s heard some of
the larger shops in town have even
longer wait times.
“It’s been a pretty natural thing
right now, with the snow and ice,” he
said.
Most of it has been people who
were rear-ended or hit the back of
another vehicle themselves, but
Jimenez said they had some cars and
trucks that slid completely off the
road.
He said they had one customer
bring in a brand new car, only two
months old, that was totaled after
the driver swerved to miss a truck
that pulled out in front of them
and ended up hitting two poles
and sliding off the road instead.
Sometimes, he said, it is better to hit
something at a low speed than jerk
the wheel on ice.
“Go slow in this weather,” he said.
“The worst thing you can do is be in
a hurry ... keep your eyes on the road
Cold weather a boon for businesses who fix up, clean up messes
— even if they feel bad for their desperate customers
TOP: Beni-
to Ledesma
works on
the bumper
of a vehicle
Tuesday while
working at
Collision &
Custom Auto
Body in Herm-
iston.
CENTER: Elite
Heating and
Air owner
Johnny Pollick
works on the
heating unit
for Ixtapa
Mexican
restaurant on
Tuesday in
Hermiston.
BOTTOM LEFT:
Smitty’s Ace
Hardware can-
not hold on
to items like
ice melt and
snow shovels.
Small shaker
jugs are all the
ice melt left
on the shelves
after putting a
large shipment
out Tuesday
morning.
BOTTOM
RIGHT: Eduar-
do Rodriguez
paints the bed
of a truck on
Tuesday at
Collision &
Custom Auto
Body in Herm-
iston.
and anticipate the traffic and that the
roads are going to be slick.”
Gerald Enders, owner of Fenders
by Enders, said his shop doesn’t do
much body work, but they have still
seen an increase in business from
people whose vehicles have not held
up well in the cold weather.
“We have been pretty busy,” he
said. “We’ve had a lot of different
starters, alternators, batteries, people
not having enough antifreeze in their
cars. Those are the real big hitters.”
He said they’re still able to get
to cars in the next day or two, but it
might be a few days longer before
their owners get them back because
parts are taking longer than usual to
arrive.
At Smitty’s ACE Hardware,
owner Tammy Smith said there has
been a high demand for snow shovels,
ice melt, sleds, insulation tape for
pipes and other items that have been
sold out everywhere in town for days
at a time. After more than a month of
snow, there are still a lot of people in
need of a snow shovel.
“We just got a shipment and I
think we only have 10 left,” she said
on Tuesday.
One person bought 15.
“I don’t know if he was reselling
them, or giving them to his neigh-
bors, or what,” she said.
Unlike some of the big-box
stores, ACE Hardware gets in new
stock twice a week, on Mondays
and Thursdays, which helps keep up
with the demand. The store has been
posting on Facebook when they get
a new shipment of hot ticket items,
which has been driving more traffic
their way.
In anticipation of the “big melt”
coming up, Smith said they were
stocking extra pumps and sandbags,
too. People had already snapped up
10,000 pounds of ice melt over a
couple of days.
“We’re always trying to predict
what will be needed, and how much,
based on the weather,” she said.
———
Contact Jade McDowell at
jmcdowell@eastoregonian.com or
541-564-4536.