Public Works crews crafting structure for Winter Carnival

HOUGHTON — What once was the location of LB’s Chill & Grill on Sheldon Avenue is home to this year’s Snow House, that is being built by the City of Houghton’s Department of Public Works.

“It’s like a giant igloo, and now we’re blowing snow on top of it. We’ll remove the form and it will be a free standing snow structure,” said John Rudak of the Houghton Department of Public Works.

When it is complete, people will be able to walk inside a full-size snow building that stands over 16-feet tall.

“The first year we did it, the Chief of Police had all sorts of vintage art work, photographs and such. They had candles and mood music. We’ll install lighting. It’ll be lit. It’ll be a show piece for the city, for Winter Carnival. That’s our contribution I guess to Winter Carnival,” said Rudak.

The city has built a giant Snow House in years past at various locations, including the parking lot of the Pearl Street Mall, but this year’s location will be downtown, masking the charred rubble left of the bar and apartments that caught fire in the summer of 2016.

Rudak said that the city had intended on building the Snow House last year, but with record snowfall, the Department of Public Works focused its energy on snow removal and keeping the city streets maintained instead.

“The trusses have been sitting there in the yard for I don’t know how many years. So, everything was kind of in place, we knew how to do it, it was just a matter of getting the man power together and getting the time to do it,” he added.

Crews have been working on the project late at night when traffic is at minimum flow and expect to have it completed and on display by the end of the week.