KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Not everyone in Kansas City is miserable after Winter Storm Blair dumped nearly a foot-deep blanket of snow.
“It's been a good couple days,” Tanner Wright said.
He and his pal Eli Allen — “We’ve known each other since elementary school,” Wright said — have spent the last couple days shoveling driveways using Wright’s four-wheeler, which is equipped with a plow. One of them shovels snow away from vehicles and homes, while the other whisks it into ever-growing piles alongside the driveway.
“My phone's been flooded with people — elderly people worried about getting care to them or people worried about getting in and out,” Wright said. “This is the second day, and we're already scheduled for a third day. It'll be a good blessing for wintertime work for sure.”
Wright, who has been advertising his snow-removal services on Facebook, welcomes a way to squirrel away some money this time of year.
“I kind of run a summer gig, a dump truck service, so the wintertime it really gets pretty slow,” Wright said. “... Without the storm, it's far and few between. I’ve got a part-time side job, but it's as-needed, so I can go a week without working — just kind of hustling odds and ends. Once summertime comes around, usually I'm full tilt 12 hours a day, but I’ve got to save my money in the summertime to make it through the winter. Stuff like this really does help out.”
This storm has been particularly good for Wright’s side gig. His wife, Tiffany, pitched in Monday returning calls and setting up nearly a dozen jobs.
“What did we get — 11, 12 inches of snow officially?” Wright said. “It is heavy. That thing is 420cc and it'll stand the wheels up in the summertime, but you get a decently full blade and it really bogs it down. So, it’s heavy. We’ve had a handful of these where the snow — you know, the heat's on, and it's sliding off the roof and it can get piled up by the house. There was one lady’s house that was up to my chest.”
As much as the work is a blessing for Wright, he’s also a blessing for those he’s helping.
“It's great to have somebody around that can do that and is willing to get out and do it,” Denise Kellis said.
Wright is Kellis’ grandson-in-law. He and Allen spent early Tuesday afternoon clearing her driveway in Independence — just the latest of dozens of jobs as Wright’s been braving the elements to be of service since the start of the storm in his trusty old Ford F-250.
“He likes to get out and help people,” Kellis said. “... He's always been helpful.”
Recent efforts to help started Saturday when Wright headed out to pretreat parking lots with salt.
“I only did a handful of those before there were cars in the ditch, left and right,” he said.
One lady Wright encountered particularly stood out.
She had driven to work Saturday afternoon at a hardware store near Missouri 7 and US 40 highways before getting a text message that the store was closed, but the roads were so slick that she became stranded trying to get home.
“I had helped another couple of gentlemen and I said, ‘Look, that lady's just sitting there,’” Wright said. “... I went and checked on her and she said she'd been sitting there for two hours. She was prepared to just stay the night in her car. The first thing out of her mouth as she rolled the window down, ‘I'm scared. Can you help me?’ so we gave her a ride home. That did really feel good.”
Wright said he’s still accepting jobs, but he’s pretty booked so patience is a virtue. Each job takes around an hour to complete.
But if you need help, Wright will be around and can be reached at 816-401-1548.
“And come summertime, if you guys need a dump truck — dirt, gravel, sand, anything you'll fit in the back — give us a holler,” he said.
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