Libby city mechanic repairs broken snowblower quickly, inexpensively

By JOHN BLODGETT

The Western News

Thanks to an enterprising city mechanic, the City of Libby was able to forgo thousands of dollars in repairs and weeks of downtime on its sole snowblower.

City Administrator Jim Hammons reported to the City Council on Tuesday that city crews the previous week had “noticed the blower was not throwing the snow like it should” when they went to clear snow berms from city streets the day after Christmas.

“They found that the impellers were worn down and there was a gap between the housing where the impellers set,” Hammons reported. “This gap would pack snow and cause the blower not to operate properly.”

After the blower’s builder quoted $10,000 for replacement impellers, Hammons said the city “asked if it was possible to have the impellers repaired by building up the edges with steel.”

That was possible, Hammons was told, “but the cost to ship, the downtime” — three to four weeks was an “optimistic” estimate, Hammons said — “and the repairs cost was very expensive.”

Enter city mechanic Jeff Best, who Hammons said looked at the problem, spoke with the manufacturer and determined he would be able to fix it — which he did after buying some steel locally and taking five hours of a workday to make the repair.

Hammons later said the snowblower issue likely was caused by the wear and tear of about two decades of use.

After reading Hammons’ report, Council Member Gary Armstrong and Mayor Brent Teske gave kudos to Best.

“(The snowblower) is working better than it has in a long time,” Teske said.