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February 1, 2022 |
Who is this mystery mechanic?
That’s what we’re wondering after reading the
story in the local Bonners Ferry Herald
from last Thursday’s edition.
We will get to the mystery mechanic in a moment.
First, some background.
For the last few weeks, the Herald has
been covering the Bonners Ferry City Council
deliberations and debates on whether to purchase
a new snowblower for the city. Please be aware
that we are not talking about a snowblower one
would use on their front sidewalk. We are
talking industrial-size snowblower, used to move
tons of snow citywide.
For years, Bonners Ferry has relied upon what is
now a 60-year-old machine to remove those tons
of snow from the city streets—a 1962 model
Sicard industrial snowblower. The ailing, aging
60-year-old machine was requiring frequent
repairs, and it was a struggle just to keep the
machine running.
In a December 2021 memo to Bonners Ferry Mayor
Dick Staples and the City Council, City
Administrator Lisa Ailport detailed her concerns
about the aging snowblower:
“This snow season has already been exceptional,
with snow accumulation rising as high as 4-feet
in some areas of town. This has caused already
strained equipment to cave under the pressures
of moving the snow. The 1960s snow blower is
feeling that strain. . . . this season we are
seeing this vital machine struggle to keep up
with the need, and with each use it is incurring
more problems that worries staff about its
overall prognosis.
‘The city streets department uses the blower to
move snow in our downtown core and along areas
where berms are too high, or snow has nowhere to
go. In past seasons, we have attempted to limit
our use of the blower to only those streets that
have no other options. This year is an exception
to the two previous years where the blower is
needed more than ever. With the unreliability of
the machine, it is causing more overall strain
on the streets department ability to adequately
and timely remove snow from the downtown as well
as other areas that may need it. If any new snow
accumulations are received, staff expects that
we will have to seek other options for removing
this snow, including leaving berms in the
downtown streets.”
(Story continues below this photograph)
According to the Bonners Ferry Herald
account of the January 21 meeting, the old
snowblower was becoming increasingly difficult
to maintain and use. Herald reporter
Emily Bonsant wrote: “With parts for the current
snow blower no longer being made, the city
mechanic has to fabricate the parts to keep the
blower going. [Mayor] Staples said that without
the current mechanic, the snow blower would not
have run for as long as it has.” (You can find
the Bonners Ferry Herald story
by clicking here ).
With that machine showing its age, and
increasingly suffering mechanical breakdowns
requiring repair, Bonners Ferry had an
opportunity to upgrade to new equipment when a
couple of stars aligned: 1) the availability of
a bigger, newer, used 2014 Diesel RPM Tech
snowblower; and 2) the availability of federal
funds provided to local governments that could
be used to help pay for “any service
traditionally provided by a government,”
according to U.S. Treasury department
guidelines.
After the few weeks of discussion at their
meetings, the City Council voted at their
January 21 Special Meeting to take advantage of
this alignment of the stars, and allocated
$105,950 of the federal funds received by the
city to purchase the new machine.
(Story continues below this photograph)
That new snow machine sounds great and will be a
needed addition to Bonners Ferry’s snow-attack
arsenal. But all this left us wondering: Who is
this mysterious “current mechanic,” (referred to
by Mayor Staples) who kept
that aging and failing machine running all these
years? The mystery mechanic who resuscitated the
old snowblower time after time to keep the
streets of Bonners Ferry open and available for
travel, winter after winter? The city mechanic
who saved the city thousands of dollars by
fabricating parts to repair the machine—where
else are you going to find parts for a 1962
Sicard Snowblower?
We tracked him down. The mechanic is Bonners
Ferry city employee Jimmy Dorhofer, who moved to
this area years ago with his family at age 14
from western Washington. Over the years, he has
worked at various mechanic jobs, and has worked
for Bonners Ferry City since 2015.
“He’s a rock star,” said Bonners Ferry Police
Chief Brian Zimmerman, “one of the best
mechanics I know.”
Mr. Dorhofer confirmed that the old 1962 Sicard
snowblower breaks down every year. Over the
years, he has replaced the clutch in the
machine, and replaced the chain from the
transmission that drives the snowblower’s auger.
He periodically has to heat, pound, and weld the
auger to re-bend it back to correct contours. He
has also made many electrical repairs, replaced
switches, and repaired hydraulics on the
machine. And much more.
He replaced the carburetor with a new throttle
body because of current gasoline formulations
causing havoc with the old engine. And the big
major repair: replacing the snowblower’s
original 352 ci industrial V-8 Ford engine with
an updated 390 ci Ford. “And it’s easier now to
get parts for it,” Mr. Dorhofer said.
Has the old ’62 broken down yet this winter
season? Sure it has. “It broke down with the
last snowfall,” Mr. Dorhofer said. So far this
season, he has had to repair the chain drive
that operates the turret for the snowblower
chute, and had to repair another bad hydraulic
hose.
He’s looking forward to the new, more modern
snowblower, and describes it as a better and
more efficient machine. The old 1962 Sicard was
a workhorse, but it was a one-stage,
single-auger machine, whereas the new 2014 RPM
Tech machine is a two-stage, double-auger
machine, with a telescoping chute, and is
capable of moving 2,000 tons of snow per hour.
The newer 2014 machine has clocked only 182
hours of operation to date.
So, thank you to Jimmy Dorhofer, for keeping
that old machine running all those years, saving
the City of Bonners Ferry several thousands of
dollars over the years, and for being part of
the City team keeping the streets of Bonners
Ferry open and moving across many snowy Boundary
County winters.
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