Snow load closes Ironwood Township hall

By RICHARD JENKINS

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Ironwood Township - The scheduled activities at the Ironwood Township township hall ended abruptly Monday evening as at least two support beams in the building's gymnasium cracked under the apparent weight of the snow load on the roof, leading to the building's evacuation.

The township board of trustees' scheduled meeting was wrapping up in the adjacent meeting room shortly after 6 p.m. when some of the people involved with the basketball practice in the gym informed the room that the beams were splitting.

The building was subsequently evacuated and parking lot closed to traffic.

There were visible cracks in at least two of the beams on the east side of the gym's ceiling and the building's east exterior wall appeared to be bowing out. It couldn't be determined if there was additional damage.

The structural damage complicates the removal of the snow off the roof. Several people assessing the situation expressed a fear that the roof could give way beneath workers were clearing the snow.

"We don't want anyone going up on the roof in the dark where you can't watch what's happening with the snow load," said Deputy Supervisor LeRoy Johnson, who is filling in for Supervisor Steve Boyd.

There was also a fear the wall could give way onto equipment needed to give workers access to the roof without standing on the building.

"We want to make sure it's done safely. ... As you take snow off, it changes the load-bearing on the roof itself and you never know what it's going to cause," Johnson said.

With night falling, Johnson said Ruotsala Construction was planning to use several Ibeams to brace the wall from the outside to prevent further buckling overnight.

The braces will allow workers to re-assess the situation in the daylight and see if there was any additional cracking overnight.

"Hopefully we can get the snow load off of it and then they can start working on the inside to restructure that," Johnson said.