Skip Harriger’s crew plows on through
By Norm Wheeler
Sun editor
This profile is the first in a series of stories you’ll read in the Glen Arbor Sunthis year about the hard-working locals who enable our Leelanau lifestyle.
When I ask Skip Harriger of Empire what driveway on his route is the most difficult to plow, he doesn’t hesitate. “YOURS!” We get more snow than anybody up here on Echo Valley Road, a quarter mile past where the county plow turns around, leaving us a sloping S-curve that winds down to the left into the valley and then, at the inflection point, abruptly up and to the right. It’s steep on both sides. And it’s not level until you get to our house. Many friends without four-wheel-drive have failed to make the grade and slid back down into the ditch, or played pinball bouncing off icy banks trying to back down into the valley and crawl up the other side. My neighbor John Velis knows how to almost make it to the top, start spinning, and then back carefully round putting his rear bumper into the snow bank so that he can make the front wheels spin the car to point down hill, allowing him to drive on down and up the other side. The only way we can live here is thanks to our winter plow guy, Skip Harriger.
Harriger’s snow removal business employs seven drivers in seven pickups, all with V-blades, three with back blades. His fleet of trucks also includes a big 95 Ford L-8000 with a belly blade and a wing blade, a former county road plow. Plus, a four-wheel-drive John Deere tractor with a seven-foot blower on it. And the old 79 Dodge fire/brush truck from the Empire Fire Department that’s used as a sander. “We have 227 clients total, but not all on the “daily” plan,” Skip figures. “There are about 175 of those. Some call us when they’re going to be here for shorter visits. Some we need to plow after every decent snowfall. Some want you to plow after an inch falls; some want you to wait till it’s deeper. It’s damned if you do and damned if you don’t sometimes. Sometimes we wonder ‘do we plow or not?’, but we get a feel for what everybody wants.”
A typical plow day for the Harrigers starts at 4-4:30 a.m. Skip’s dad Boone and sometimes his son Tyler help Skip start plowing in Empire. “The rest start at 5 or 5:30 a.m.,” Skip explains. “Two trucks do Glen Arbor and around Glen Lake, and 2 trucks do the rest of Empire Township.”
And it’s not always just plowing that presents problems. After the winter we just survived, when it rained several times on top of packed snow, it was more about sanding the roads and driveways. “All of the sub roads around here are hills,” Skip says. “So how do you go up ‘em when they’re glare ice? A couple times I had to go backwards up Golden Valley Drive throwing sand behind me to have traction. So you’re backing up a top-heavy sander on ice, eyes on the mirrors, with banks and sometimes drop-offs on either side, just so people can get out. We normally don’t sand in the dark,” Skip adds matter-of-factly.
It doesn’t always go well. “One of the last plows last year I was doing Hammersmith’s on Storm Hill,” Skip tells. ‘It was packed snow glazed with rain, and on the last pass the L-8000 broke loose. I slid back down, luckily staying in the road.”
The big “Snow-mageddon” storm of March 2-3, 2012, provided local plow guys with their biggest challenge ever. Heavy wet cement-like snow fell to a depth of 21 inches as recorded at the county garage in Maple City. There was so much moisture in that snow that I remember it looked blue. Skip headed out at 8:30 p.m. to plow out Ralph Middleberger on Golden Valley Drive. “It took me two and a half hours to get in there because I got stuck five times myself,” Skip remembers. “I got back to Empire around midnight, and there was no power. I headed to Dune Woods Drive, which is a hill and a curve, and I slid the whole blade and truck into the ditch. I’m SOL, but suddenly here comes Chris Wall (owner of the Dunes Golf Course) on a dozer!” Skip and his gang went around the clock for two days straight after that storm. They had to do most of the route with the snowblower because it was so deep. “I didn’t sleep for 48 hours,” Skip marvels. “It was nuts!”
The rest of the year the Harrigers run Harriger Construction in Empire. Skip’s father Boone just retired, but he still manages the rentals they own. His mother Marion worked for Doc Houghton in Empire and Glen Arbor for 35 years until he passed away in August 2014, but she always did the books and the billings for the family business and continues to today. Skip, Boone, and Mark Finstad of Empire all got their builders licenses in Lansing in 1994. They have since built many houses around Empire, Glen Arbor, and Glen Lake. “We have built houses for a lot of great people,” Skip offers. “Many have become good friends. We’ve never had anybody who wasn’t a joy to work for and with.” This was the first winter the Harrigers were simultaneously building four houses and keeping up with the full plow season. “It’s tough when everyone is so busy. It’s hard to find help, to get sub-contractors on a timeline, so we keep busy!”
To contact Harriger Construction, including new construction, remodeling and snow removal, email them at harrigerconstruction@gmail.com, write to P.O. Box 247, Empire, MI 49630, or call 231-326-5572.
