Snow Saints Cold Weather Brings Out Warm-Hearted People In Cda

It’s as if buying a snow blower comes with a contract: Do unto your neighbor’s driveway as you would do unto your own.

The fine print says the nastier the weather or the heavier the snow, the better. If a city plow has just thrown the Berlin Wall across several driveways, get roaring even sooner.

Ray Hjelseth seems typical of the Lake City snow saints, the people who make a regular routine out of using their snow-blowing horsepower to bail out their neighbors. Hjelseth even keeps an eye out for the city plows so he knows when he is needed most.

“That’s the knight in shining armor,” Denise Neil said, pointing across Westminster Avenue at Hjelseth. Moments earlier, he blasted out the berm a city plow left in front of her house.

Hjelseth is reluctant even to give his name, preferring to just humbly plow along. “People do things for me and it’s my way of returning it,” Hjelseth said.

“I’ve got the time, God’s given me good health, and I’ve got the equipment.” He also has the team. When Hjelseth is out of town, his wife, Sharon, fires up their power shoveler.

Even before the deluge started dumping on Coeur d’Alene 10 days ago, Ken Robinson regularly was taking care of the driveways and sidewalks for at least a half-dozen neighbors on Tullis Drive.

When his snow blower broke down last week, he simply pulled his shovel out of the garage and still is chipping away at the neighbors’ drifts.

“He’s great,” said Linda McCarty, a neighbor on Tullis Drive. “Without him we’d be three feet deep in snow.”

And it’s one example of how “we have a great sense of community in this neighborhood,” McCarty added.

Robinson is a ship skipper for the Environmental Protection Agency on the Great Lakes. Because the lakes freeze, he can’t sail in the winter.

So he puts in his spare time helping his neighbors. Monday morning he went from helping one neighbor jump-start a stalled car to helping another break through the icy chunks at the end of his driveway.

“It’s there, it keeps me busy, and it stops me smoking,” joked the ruddy native of Westminster, England.

He won’t take money or even help with the expensive repairs to his snow blower. “It’s not as if I don’t need the exercise,” he said, launching another load of snow skyward, and getting part of it back in his face courtesy of the wind.

Atlantic Drive seems to have a snow saint at every third or fourth house.

If John Urwiller isn’t out with his 5-helpful horsepower, Martin Graham is doing it manually.

As part of an hour-and-a-half daily routine, Urwiller takes care of one neighbor who just had surgery, and another who had a heart attack a few years ago.

The third just happens not to have a snow blower.

He and another neighbor take turns keeping the mailboxes clear for the carriers.

“We’ve got some of the best neighbors we’ve ever had, and I’ve lived in 10 states,” Urwiller said, explaining his generosity.

“If I go on a trip, I don’t feel bad about asking somebody about watering my lawn.”

Urwiller, who will turn 76 on St. Patrick’s Day, definitely doesn’t do it because he likes the roar of machines.

“It’s pretty heavy, wrestling that thing around at my age.”

This also isn’t about a love of Arctic chill or snow. That’s “for people who go skiing and snowmobiling,” he said.

His neighbors are heartened, no matter the motivation.

“I was out for five minutes today with a shovel, and here came John,” Dave Robertson said.

“I can’t say enough for the favors these people do for me.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo