Watching and reading of the problems winter storm Nemo caused brought back memories of my early days in condo management. My first job in the industry was as a resident manager of a 72-unit condo complex on an island in the Detroit River. It was actually a very interesting, challenging job, in a beautiful location. As the “manager”, I was responsible for ALL of the maintenance and during my time there, that included, plumbing, roofing, electrical, heating, cooling, landscaping, pool repair and maintenance, wood siding repair and maintenance, garage door repair and replacement, snow removal, and every other job you could possibly think of in a badly designed, badly built, multi-unit complex. The concept was that since they were paying me, they didn’t need any other contractors to do the work (they really didn’t care much about licensing, and neither did local authorities).
Snow removal was interesting – there were 11 buildings, 10 of which had 8 units (4 up, 4 down) with garages, decks above them, and open stairways from the upstairs units to the lower level. These open stairwells collected snowdrifts on carpeted stairs that had to be hand shoveled carefully and then broomed clean. Any accumulation also had to be removed from the open second floor decks because they were badly constructed and couldn’t handle the weight of even a medium snowfall. Then of course, there were the roads throughout the site, leading to the garages and parking areas – one car in the garage and one parked outside meant almost every outdoor spot was filled. To handle the snow, I had an 8HP John Deere tractor with a snow blade, a shovel and a broom.
In the winter of 1976 (before the Weather Channel gave us 3-day warnings of storms), our 6:00PM local news weather forecaster, told us that we were “probably” in for a heavy snow storm beginning about 7:oo PM that night. Having been through some snow storms before, I knew that little tractor couldn’t push much so I would have to stay ahead of the snow. The snow started at 8:00pm. I started off in the tractor, making a complete pass around the project, then going through each of the buildings, shoveling the snow from the second floor, down the steps to the parking area, and then plowing it off to the side. Of course, since this was the evening, everyone was home and the open parking spots were all filled so I couldn’t plow those spaces and couldn’t let the snow pile up behind them. I figured I keep this up until the snow stopped and then make one last pass to clean up.
From 7:00pm until 6:00AM the next morning, 20″ of snow was dumped on our little island. In addition to plowing and shoveling the stairs, I had to sneak on to 34 decks and quietly try to shovel (lifting and dumping it off onto the road below) enough off to keep them from collapsing.
At 7:00AM in the morning, I quit for awhile. Every stair, garage, parking area and deck, was clear enough for people or vehicles to function. I went into my unit, stripped off the multiple layers of soaked winter clothing and poured myself a beer stein full of single malt scotch. I had only taken one sip when there was a banging at my door. Opening it I was confronted by one of the owners who promptly informed me that they were obviously paying me too much money for too little work, because I hadn’t cleared the snow. I guess I looked at him rather stupidly because he then pointed out to me his car and said “I CAN’T GET OUT!!” I looked at his car, which was stopped at the exit of the association’s property – he couldn’t get onto the main road, because the county hadn’t plowed it yet. I was still laughing crazily when I shut the door in his face and went back to my drink. Probably not the best way to handle it because he complained to the board about my work ethic and “attitude” at the next board meeting. Fortunately, they laughed at him, too. Also, later that day, a nice number of owners showed up to help clean up – they were really great.
When Mother Nature dumps on you, don’t expect miracles. Expect good planning and hard work, but have patience. Unless you are paying for a troop of people to stand by waiting for something to happen to your association, you’re going to be part of a larger picture and will have to wait your turn for some things. In this day and age, and if you have electricity, you should have some form of communication from your association/management about what’s going on and how long it’s going to take for things to get back to close to normal. Boards – good communications helps reduce the impact of the idiots. No communication gives them the upper hand. It also helps to inform the owners about how things are supposed to progress before the disaster arises. Let them know that it will take a while to clear things and to call if they have a real emergency, not just that they want to get to work the day after a 3′ snowfall.