Born to Build
Article from the 2008 Bank of Prairie du Sac, newsletter

Scott Frey was only a teenager when he approached the Bank of Prairie du Sac for a snowmobile loan. “I asked Noel McCormick for the loan,” says Frey. “I was approved very quickly.

”Frey knew he wanted to build as young as age 13 when he walked into a home under construction. “I couldn’t believe how the sticks were standing up and down,” he says. “I knew then what I would do with my life.

”Beginning with a roofing job making $5 an hour, the natural-born entrepreneur began working nights and weekends on his own time, using flood lights pointed at the roof when darkness fell. The passion was obvious.

Flash forward a couple decades and Frey is President and CEO of Frey Construction and Home Improvement in Prairie du Sac. He had more than 40 employees and sales of more than $4 million in 2007. The Bank of Prairie du Sac is still his bank.

Recently the Bank assisted him in expanding his business into Black Earth where he plans to open a showroom. “The Bank trusts my vision and supports me. It isn’t a handshake bank, but it is a lot closer than some of the impersonal experiences I have had with financial institutions,” says Frey.

Scott Frey

He values the relationship he has built with his lender. “Noel is personable and knows his business inside and out,” says Frey. “I know I can trust what he says. ”That quality is priceless to an enterprising individual.

Chamber releases new branding logo
Michael Carignan - Editor

The Sauk Prairie Area Chamber of Commerce held its annual dinner and awards banquet Monday night at the Dorf Haus in Roxbury. And with snow falling heavily outside revealed the results of the Greater Sauk Prairie Area Branding Project headed up by the Chamber's Economic Development Committee.

Committee member Ken Carlson told those in attendance that the slogan "Where Eagles Soar" has been in place for many years and has served the community well but the group was looking for something different that would attract visitors from within a 200-mile radius of the area.

Heather Buchholz, a designer with Mueller Sports Medicine, designed the logo. The new slogan chosen by the committee that adorns the logo is "Sauk Prairie Riverway - Get Out and Relax."

The logo can be used alone or on a suggested green and blue background on banners, hats, coffee mugs, T-shirts or other advertising items. The Chamber plans to present the new logo to area municipal governments in the near future.

Despite the nasty weather 98 percent of those that signed up for Monday's dinner showed up for the event. A performance by Sauk Prairie High School's Show Choirs was, however, canceled.

After a brief business meeting during which outgoing Chamber president Ken Myers turned over the reins to incoming president Pete Cicero, Lesley Bruner, the Chamber's executive director, and Cicero handed out the annual awards.

Receiving the award for Large Business of the Year was Wollersheim Winery. Wollersheim's previously had won the award for Small Business of the Year in 2000 but due to extensive expansion is now the Large Business honoree.

Small Business of the Year was awarded to Opahle's Piggly Wiggly, which complete a major expansion in 2007 as well.

Business Person of the Year was awarded to Marietta Reuter and Volunteer of the Year went to Richard Frey.

The snows of December don't seem to want to stop. The rain-snow mix that hit Dec. 2 clung to many roofs. Usually a solid snow cover on a roof is a good thing; it indicates little heat is being lost through the roof. It's a testament to sound ceiling and attic ventilation and insulation. But this December when rain came, froze and then snow came, the layer was
heavy and at the eaves where it's colder, water running off the roofs froze.

In this readership area, people saw icicles form at their roof edges. Some were spectacular, long and broad. "These are ice dams," said Mark Alexander of Frey Construction and Home Improvement. "Dams form on gutters filled with snow. Water is still moving under that snow." He said heat loss through the roof causes snow to melt. "It flows under the dammed-up ice and backs up under the roof," he said. "It will damage underlayment, the plywood and seek out any small crevice, like a mouse, seeping into walls and ceilings." Like a number of area homeowners, Alexander said he learned from experience this winter. "When you don't do it right away, it builds up worse," Alexander said. "If you don't take care of these things, they bring so much stress into our lives."

Ice dam solutions
To prevent roof damage, heavy snow should be removed from the first four to six feet of a roof's edge, Alexander said. People can use a snow rake. After the early December snow storms, there was such a run on snow rakes in Madison, they were hard to find. One Madison television station demonstrated how individuals can make a snow rake with a length of board, a pipe flange and a length of pipe. This works well for one-story homes and the tool can easily be stored for when it is needed again. For those who have two and three-story homes, Alexander recommends calling experts with proper equipment for safety. "It's dangerous," Alexander said. This year while removing snow, Max McGee, the retired Packer and announcer, fell off his roof and died while the owner of ABC Roofing supply fell through his roof and also died.
Alexander suggested people consider putting heat cables in their gutters so the dams do not form in the first place.Then homeowners need to run the water away from the foundation to avoid damage to basements.

Homeowners can find contractors in their telephone books under construction, roofing or remodeling.

Not the solution
Throwing salt on the ice dam is not the solution. Alexander said there can be a chemical reaction between the salt and the roofing which results in a stain that cannot be removed. He also does not recommend throwing salt into gutters. "Salt can damage metal gutters," he said.

Planning ahead
Alexander said he's heard some talk about snow levels increasing, but he knows weather forecasters have been wrong in the past. Like everyone else, he's hoping for a break from the repeated series of weekly snow storms. Hope is one thing.
Alexander suggests homeowners plan to be proactive. When spring comes, he said people can address their roof and gutter problems so they are better prepared for the next winter season.