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Show Record Snowfall-Extreme Cold Take Toll In Normally Balmy Moab and Canyonlands F.ffects of extremely cold weather and a record rec-ord amount of snow are being felt throughout the Moab valley this week with thousands of dollars of property damage reported re-ported in the area. S u p e r i n t e n dent of Schools Bill B. Meador reported this week that the Junior High has suffered suf-fered damage due to frozen fro-zen water pipes and the High School has also been plagued with problems related to the cold weather. wea-ther. A water line in an inside in-side wall at the Junior High broke over the weekend allowing water to seep through the floor of the gymnasium. Mr. Meador stated that a section sec-tion about 32 feet by 32 feet will have to be replaced re-placed where the floor buckled from the water. A flooring contractor, probably from Salt Lake City, will have to be hired to replace the damaged dam-aged section and reseal the entire floor. At the high school, a break in a water line to a furnace atop the gymnasium gym-nasium was discovered Monday before much water had reached the floor. It is hoped. Mr. Meador said, that no damage will result to the hardwood floor there. It was expected that at least one section of the heating unit could be repaired re-paired Tuesday so that the gym could be used. A man from Salt Lake City will be ' called in, however, after all repairs re-pairs are completed to balance out the unit again. In addition to the furnace in the gym, the High School also experienced exper-ienced a break in a water wat-er line in the basement furnace room of the building last week, which flooded the basementand caused condensation throughout the building. Mr. Meador stated that it is not known at this time whether the condensation conden-sation has caused damage dam-age to the office area of the building. The damages at the schools have placed an additional strain on an already tight maintenance mainten-ance and operation budget bud-get and School Board officials of-ficials are presently working to find ways to pay for the additional expense. Total damage estimates have not been made at this time, Mr. Meador said. Moab City has also experienced some problems prob-lems at the new Visitor Center located on North Main Street. City Councilman Coun-cilman Dick Hammer reported re-ported to Chamber of Commerce members Tuesday that an air conditioner con-ditioner line in the building buil-ding had broken in the cold weather and it was some time before the "'-. . ' i ! City and County crews worked steadily over the weekend to remove the giant windrows of snow piled in the middle of Moab streets. Cost of the damage was discovered. It appears, Mr. Hammer Ham-mer said, that electric thermostats were not installed in-stalled in the building when it was constructed and therefore the break occurred. Damage to the building is estimated at about $6,000 and includes in-cludes a 2-3" buckling in the floors, much of the ceiling is saturated with water turned to ice, and the carpeting may not be reusable. Complete Com-plete extent of the damage dam-age cannot be known, Mr. Hammer said, until the ice thaws and the water can be removed. Grone-man Grone-man construction company, com-pany, the firm which erected the building is to be contacted this week to check on their responsibility re-sponsibility concerning the installation of the thermostats. Mr. Hammer Ham-mer said, thatis appears to be a situation where no one was responsible for checking the building build-ing to make sure it was winterized. Many private citizens are also esperiencing troubled with the weather, wea-ther, running from minor min-or irritation to considerable consid-erable expense. The roof on the old roller skating rink collapsed last weekend week-end from the weight of the snow, although no one was inside the building build-ing at the time. A number num-ber of awnings and carports car-ports are currently staggering stag-gering under the mass of snow. Everything from heat lamps to welders torches have been used by local residents this week to keep water lines open and stores have reported report-ed doing a land office business in heating tapes. The people benefiting ben-efiting most from the cold spell are the gas companies who report that although demand for both natural gas and propane pro-pane is very high, there is adequate gas on hand to supply the needs of the community. City and County road crews have been hard pressed to keep ahead of the recurring storms and expense in snow removal is expected to be very high. Mayor Winford Bunce reported that the City had been required to hire several trucks as well as several new employees em-ployees to keep up with snow removal. 3etween 10 and 12 men worked throughout the week end to remove the windrows of snow along the main City streets. Mayor Bunce stated that no work would be done in the subdivisions sub-divisions because of the considerable expense of removing the snow from those areas. He stated that there is no place to pile the snow if it is plowed and hauling it away in the same manner man-ner as has been done on the main thoroughfares would be cost-prohibitive. County Clerk Barbara Domenick reported that County crews have been . working round the clock snow removal project has not yet been determined although it is expected to be high. in an effort to clear the miles of road within the county lines. Some members mem-bers of the crew have worked as many as 50 overtime hours in the pay period since the storms began. This amounts am-ounts to about $200 extra ex-tra per man in wages along, she said an additional addi-tional S10 per hour for each piece of equipment can be added to that cost. Salt brine alone has cost almost S500 to date. A new road grader has been purchased by the County and will soon be arriving, she said, and this should aleviate the situation to some extent'. The County crews have nearly completed work in the areas near Moab and have moved men and equipment into areas in the county. New snows on Tuesday and more expected on Thursday were expected to hamper efforts at clearing outlying out-lying areas. - s '.' . . ; ' viv, :P t-nV !':''.'-v. !':''.'-v. i V v One section of roof gave way last weekend at the old Moab Roller Rink, due to the weight of the snow. Building Inspector Cecil Shaffer stated this week that the facility is closed to the public and will remain so until the roof is repaired and an inspection of the whole building can be made. Owners of the facility had no comment. |