GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Feb. 10, 2014) — Marv Dykema of Dykema Excavators is in the snow hauling business these days.
“Now we’ve got close to 10 acres of snow piles right now,” Dykema said of his northeast Kent County property.
He said he’s not used to housing and hauling very much snow normally. That says a lot, considering his family’s been in business since 1946.
“We get calls every year, very minimal with the amount of snow we had the last couple years,” he explained.
Dykema said typical contracted work for his company involves clearing concrete, dirt, and gravel. He’s in the middle of working on some large commercial buildings and developments right now. However, those tasks have taken second priority this winter to calls to clear snow, which have crews working around the clock.
“Probably started three weeks ago, after that first big episode, and we’ve been hauling with four or five trucks every night for 3 weeks now,” Dykema explained.
FOX 17 caught up with one of Dykema’s front loader operators, Tom Lee, in a neighborhood in northeast Kent County.
“They’re having issues with trash service,” Lee said. “The snow is getting too far out into the roadways, so the trash trucks couldn’t get around.”
In his 13 years with the company, Lee said, he has never been assigned to clear snow. He’s used to hauling gravel. He’s sick of the cold, fluffy stuff, but hauling snow is “job security.”
“Car dealers are probably the biggest [client], up on Plainfield Avenue. They just need room for their inventory, so their space is precious to them.”
He said his company works with landscapers to do the heavy lifting with all the mounds of snow, which has to go somewhere. “So we come in and get rid of it,” Lee said.
Dykema said he’s dependent on the warm weather to thoroughly clear the snow, which will allow him to go back to his normal contracted work.
