NorthwestJuly 21, 2000

People featured in this column have been selected at random from the telephone book.

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BOVILL -- Everyone works to keep a roof over their head. But Kelly Emo actually spends his working days on the roof; fighting heat, the dangers of falling and the challenge of making a living.

"When you work, you have to do your best. And I try to do my best. So I think I'm the best roofer around. I really think that."

Kelly credits much of his work ethic and his choice of jobs to his grandfather, who also was a roofer.

"He said, 'Be honest, be fair, do a good job and do a little something extra.' " That's the way to not only pay the bills, says Kelly, but also good advice for establishing a business and some financial security.

Kelly's business is called North Construction. It's headquartered out of this remote Latah County logging town. But the majority of his jobs, says Kelly, are done across the border in Washington.

"Washington requires a license and bonding, which Idaho doesn't." And Kelly has found that jumping through the legal hoops seems to trigger more business. There are also more constraints. But he finds the tradeoff is more than equitable.

"We have to wear harnesses and safety equipment and that's really good." Some five years ago, Kelly witnessed another roofer fall some 35 feet from a building in Garfield, Wash.

"I saw this guy on the roof and all of a sudden he was gone. Everybody thought he was dead." The man landed on a steel saw horse, then struck his head on a toolbox, leaving an indentation, according to Kelly. An emergency helicopter was summoned from Spokane. The guy regained consciousness and was released from the hospital the next day.

"That's the ugliest thing I've seen in roofing."

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Kelly himself has never fallen off a roof. But he says he's experienced all the other downfalls of the business. "Roofing is a rough trade. Most of the people around it are pretty tough. You've got to stay in shape to do this. You've got to definitely take care of your body and your feet. Your feet are what keep you on the roof."

And this time of year, says Kelly, roofers have to consume gallons of water a day, not to mention douse themselves to beat the heat.

"I wear one of those old dish cloth towels over my head, under my hat, and wet it down."

But sometimes the heat becomes almost unbearable. "It can easily be 120 degrees on a roof. I did one in Lewiston and it had to be 130 degrees. It just baked your brain." Kelly says white roofing, whether steel or regular shingles, is the worst. "It's like sitting in aluminum foil out in the sun."

Even when the weather cooperates, the job seems to work against to body, says Kelly. "There's a lot of pain involved and people get irritable and mean and hostile."

Born in Illinois, Kelly, a 37-year-old self-described travel enthusiast, came to Idaho in 1988. "I went on a drive and just never went back," he says of his arrival in Coeur d'Alene. "And that's the truth."

He lives now with his wife, Nelia, in Bovill and says he has no plans to move elsewhere. He finds the country to his liking and has gained a measure of respect within the building community. His specialty, he says, is steel roofing.

"It's some of the hardest work in the world," he claims. "It's dangerous and you have to bend over all the time." The ideal roofer, says Kelly, should be small and agile. He's 6 feet tall and weighs more than 200 pounds. That's a disadvantage, especially when he has to negotiate an old roof that has weak spots.

"So I do a lot of packing the shingles to the roof."

Right now he has just one employee. "It's just a job. Enough to make a living."

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