A winter's tale

As the January snowstorms roared off, business people throughout northern Nevada told stories of how their work was affected and began tallying the costs of the storm.

A sampling: "The timing couldn't have been worse for us," said Dave Shultz, vice president of manufacturing at Production Pattern and Founding in Dayton."We shut down the California plant three days before the snowstorms.We were 70 percent moved and tried to get the rest moved in during the holiday week.

The trucks couldn't get over the mountains.We expected to be all caught up, but now we're still playing catch up." ooo Some folks didn't have an option to go home early.Alere Medical Inc., a national home-health monitoring firm based in Reno, closed early except for the nurses, says Gayle Litov, director of human resources.

The firm put some of the nurses up in a hotel and paid cab fare for others.

And what about the "distraction element" of staffers more focused on the weather outside the window than on the accounts receivable? "I don't know how you'd quantify that," says Litov.

But it was definitely a factor,with non-nursing staff asking when the offices would close, catching the weather reports online, and holding numerous water-cooler discussions about road conditions.

ooo Trucking and logistics companies began adding up the costs of weather-caused delays.

"The cost varies but can quickly become quite substantial," said Darryl Bader of ITS Logistics in Sparks.

Among the costs: Paying the driver while he's delayed, picking up the tab for a hotel for a driver who's stuck, and finding equipment and drivers to handle loads that otherwise would be moving on the stalled trucks.

And there's always the possibility, Bader said, that shippers will decide to use other alternatives if trucking companies can't get through the snow.

ooo "All of our employees made it in, but our fleet of lowboy trailer trucks can't safely go in deep snow," said Susie Moore, controller at Modern Stainless and Design, a wine tank manufacturer in Dayton.

The upshot: She had to hire a trucking company to pick up a load of coils in Los Angeles ooo International Game Techology's production slowed as suppliers couldn't get trucks over Donner Summit and absenteeism was relatively high during the storm.

But the slots maker was quickly catching up as skies cleared.

ooo Employees of Newmont Mining Co., the state's biggest gold producer,wrestled with wet and sticky ores after the storms moved through.

That, along with some delays in delivering ores from mines to mills, added to the company's production costs for a few days, said spokeswoman Mary Korpi.

The bigger impact, she said, came as production crews were pulled from their regular duties to handle snow-removal throughout Newmont's properties.

That's a safety issue and takes priority when snow falls.

ooo On Friday, the Washoe County Recorder's Office closed at noon, says Marc Sykes, broker manager of Century 21 Mountain Properties in south Reno, bringing much of the real estate business to halt.Any escrow scheduled to close Friday afternoon was held over to the following Monday.

Real estate is dependent on people being out and about, showing property.And Friday? With white-out conditions scattered around Reno, showing property was out of the question and most offices closed early.

"It's a mess.

It's a nightmare," said Keith Kline, fuel department manager for Allied Washoe Heating Oil Company.

Allied Washoe's oil trucks deliver to residential customers, piping oil from the truck into a pipe fill located somewhere it could be anywhere on the customer's lawn.

The snow has buried them all.

"A lot of our customers are long-time, older folks," said Kline."You can't ask an 80- year-old to dig out the fill pipe."

Deliveries fell behind schedule as drivers dug out the fills.

Wells Fargo closed 33 of its northern Nevada locations Friday, letting about 400 employees leave at 4 pm.

The bank worked short-staffed in some locations, letting employees leave early when school closings let children out early or when roads close to home began to fill up.

And the impact on business? "We had a limited amount of traffic into the stores," says Chad Osorno, senior vice president and manager.

Blizzard conditions kept most customers away, at least for the day.

Contractors whose projects were shut down by the snow provided equipment and labor to clear streets as parking lots around essential facilities such as hospitals and police stations.

The Contractors Auxiliary, which includes about 175 members, mobilized about 100 pieces of equipment ranging from loaders to backhoes and trucks after a snow emergency was declared.

"I'm not taking on new business because I'm far enough behind," said Grady Rogers of Snow Services.

The Moundhouse firm repairs SnoCats for ski hills and utility companies.

Some repair work must be done on site."If things aren't passable, I've taken over parts on my snowmobile.

I've had clearance through the highway patrol to ride a snowmobile up the highways if it's completely closed." ooo And cookies are a big business in northern Nevada if you're a Girl Scout.Upwards of 500 entrepreneurial girls were put out of business for a week when blizzard conditions forced cancellation of the Girl Scout annual cookie kickoff the day girls get their cookie spreadsheets and workshops on how to make change for a $3.50 box of cookies.

Without a kickoff, the girls missed out on the fanfare, says Linda Reed, chief executive officer of the Girl Scouts of the Sierra Nevada, but the final impact? Try to slow down a Girl Scout.

Girls were out taking orders by the next day for late February delivery.