This week’s winter storms have claimed several roofs throughout the area including one on the cattle barn at the Polk County Fair. Polk County Fair Board spokesperson Dan Grunhovd said the snow slid off the main structure onto a lean-to causing the collapse. “We’ve had two fairs in that cattle barn, but that was a lot of snow,” said Grunhovd. “It was more snow than we ever anticipated. It warmed up a little bit that night and fell from the top roof onto the lean-to, and that was enough to make it go.”
The future of the barn and the damages are still unknown as the adjustors haven’t been through the building yet. “We still haven’t met with all of our adjustors yet, so we’ll still have to see,” said Grunhovd. “The ends were still in good shape, so we just have to get everything out of there after the adjuster has been there and see what we have to do to replace. It’s just the roof on one-third of the building, so it’s going to be a big job, but I think we can get it done.”
The building is used for cold storage during the winter, and there was farm equipment located under the roof that collapsed. “We were using it for cold storage,” said Grunhovd. “It happened to be the south side where some farmers were storing some farm equipment. There weren’t any boats or campers there, but there is some damage to some farm equipment.”
Grunhovd said a number of volunteers came out to help remove snow from roofs after the collapse to make sure another one doesn’t give way this spring. “I just want to say we had a really good set of volunteers that came in and helped for two days to get the snow off the building, so we don’t have to worry about this again this year,” said Grunhovd. “It’s good to have a good and caring community that steps in to help us do that. I appreciate that very much.”
Harlan’s Boats R-US in Mentor also had a roof collapse. SunOpta in Crookston had a partial failure to Warehouse 4, there is some damage to the roof at Domino’s in Crookston, and the new flagpole at Landslide Park in Crookston had the flag ripped away in the high winds.
