It’s Snow Fun as Valdez Resident Pays $5,000 to Have Roof Cleared
For the man with the biggest roof in Valdez, this year’s snow season has come with a steep price: He has paid $5,000 to have it cleared.
Dennis Holtz, owner of the FoodMart supermarket, said Wednesday it took two men with snow blowers a couple of weeks to finally get all of the snow off.
“My roof is 21,000 square feet,” Holtz said. “We had 400 tons of snow up there. It’s built to hold 140 pounds per square foot, and we had 100 pounds per square foot.
“It took over $5,000 to get the 9 feet of snow on the roof blown off,” he said. “I guess that’s just one of the costs of doing business.”
Holtz said Valdez was returning to normal after getting 4 feet of snow on Jan. 16, when a single-day record of 47 1/2 inches was set. More than 13 feet of snow fell in January, leaving only rooftops visible on one-story dwellings.
Jeff Bailey of the National Weather Service said Valdez is 8 inches from passing the season record for snowfall accumulation of 384.7 inches, set in 1986-87.
Harry Rogers, superintendent of schools, said children no longer play “king of the hill” but “man on the mountain” at the elementary school.
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