Arbor Pro says thanks, but no thanks to more roof work

By PAUL DELANEY

Staff Reporter

When – and if – we see the green, green grass again in the spring, Pete Johnson of Arbor Pro would love to hear from you. Now, however, he's likely going to turn away your business.

Johnson's big boom truck, a piece of equipment normally assigned to trimming tall trees, was recently seen at the Cheney Plaza, removing snow from an awning roof that appeared to be buckling, and potentially collapsing.

“It was an emergency situation,” Johnson said. “We stepped up.” The boom truck makes it possible for workers not to actually have to get onto the roof he said.

“We did the ones over the Subway shop but they didn't ask us to do the others,” Johnson said. “The nail salon called and said there was a problem and said can you look at it and I said, ‘oh crap.'”

Johnson said he keeps his crews busy in the off-season by doing snow plowing and holiday lighting. But snow removal from roofs is not – and he emphasized not – something the company does, despite this instance.

“We don't do roofs,” he said. “But we did do this one for the (mall owners) Vanderverts because it was an emergency situation.” And, Johnson said, last Friday they did similar duty for the Spokane Teachers Credit Union, also on Plaza property.

“We do everything for them (Vandervert) during the summer,” Johnson said of their related work at the shopping plaza. “That's why they knew to call us.”

Johnson said his company has gotten 25 calls since his boom truck was out in the parking last Wednesday, but it's an area that he does not want to get into, not only from the standpoint of manpower, but liability as well.

“The liability is so high when you're doing roof work, because if you rip off a couple of tiles, you're replacing half the roof,” he said. Johnson also said that a lot of people, especially homeowners, are using people who are not bonded and insured. Should an accident happen, the property owner assumes liability.

Johnson's company is insured to the tune of some $5 million, and, he said, “if we had time, maybe (we would do more roofs). But we have no time.” Currently there are 12 Arbor Pro employees plowing and another two, two-man snowblowing crews working long days to rid parking lots of this record snow.

“I really commend my guys,” Johnson said. “They have little sleep and these guys just go.”

Paul Delaney can be reached at: [email protected]