Heat affects local businesses differently

Several check in with tales of summer heat

The sun means many things for different people.

For some area businesses, it's a headache. For others, it's more money in the wallet.

Forecasts are beginning to suggest that temperatures will be cooling down, but the recent weeks of heat have had an affect on area businesses.

"It's obviously a negative as far as our efficiency out in the field," said David Mathews, Jr., president of the Legacy Construction Group, Inc. "The guys can't work as long of shifts out in the field. We have to start the day earlier to try and beat the heat as much as possible."

Mathews said that a lot of Legacy's crews are starting as early as 6 a.m., and that there's definitely more water, and more time spent at the water bucket.

Not that the heat is entirely a surprise.

"You know you have a certain window that the heat is going to be a factor," he said. "It's something that we have to address on a yearly basis … We just have to struggle through it until cooler temperatures are back and we'll be up to full efficiency at that point."

Mathews said he thought his group had fared OK in the heat.

But the heat has affected Central Washington Asphalt employees as far as work productivity, said president Pamp Maiers, Jr.

"Some of our people have gotten heatstroke in the last week or so," Maiers said last week. "When that happens, we have to get them to a cool spot and cool them down quick … We're a paving company, it's always hot, but it's much more so when you have 100-degree heat."

Like Legacy, Maiers said Central Washington Asphalt starts and shuts down earlier, and has water trucks and bottled water on site at all times.

Aaron Golladay, one of the owners of Stokrose Farms in Warden, said that the heat has not really impact his business at all.

"Those heat spells are what you get," Golladay said, calling it a normal summer. "(I can) put my hay up a day sooner, but it's hard on my beans."

And then there are those businesses for whom the heat is a blessing.

"It's our time of the year to do business," said Dan Tyler, who owns and manages Baskin-Robbins with his wife Lynn. "I'm not even sure about the customer count, but it goes way up. We could stand hot weather all year round."

"It always helps the ice cream business when it's warm like this," Lynn Tyler said. "In winter time it pretty much dies. The heat business keeps us going. Nice weather."

Life at Basin Refrigeration and Heating has also been busy, according to bookkeeper Ashley Mollotte.

"The phones have been ringing off the hook, so it's been good for business," Mollotte said. "Both (from) people who need repairs, people who are wanting to replace units or people who are wanting to add air conditioning in homes where there was none before."

She said more work has been crammed into the business' operating hours, and employees have also been putting in a lot of overtime.

"It's been hotter this summer, so (we've been) busier than average," Mollotte said. "We expect to be more busy in the summer time, but this summer has been particularly warm."