Record snowfall strikes in Bear Lake County

MONTPELIER, Idaho (KIFI) - Winter is far from over in Bear Lake County after a record amount of snow this year.

Visiting Montpelier, you will see empty parks that are submerged in snow and community signs that are camouflaged in white.

Montpelier resident Mark Jacobs says this has been a daily reality. 

"I shovel snow every day," Jacobs said. "There has a nice blue sky lately, and we haven't seen very many of those during the winter, because it seems like every day we were getting snow."

With that snow continuing to come down, many buildings have come down as well, including the golf cart storage building at the Montpelier Golf Course, to the historic schoolhouse in Bern. 

"A lot of people have been doing a lot of shoveling, helping other people shovel roofs off just trying to do some preventative maintenance so that doesn't happen," Jacobs said.

While Bear Lake farmers are no longer dealing with drought-like conditions, there is a thing as too much snow. 

"It's good to get the moisture, but at the same time, if it doesn't melt, it's hard to get out and do anything," Jacobs said. "I know a lot of the guys that have calving going on now. It's rough on them. They're in survival mode basically trying to just get through it all."

Jacobs says in his forty seven years living in Montpelier, this winter has stood out the most.

"I've been here since 1976, and this is the most snow we've had since then in a year and the year is not over," Jacobs said.

But instead of complaining, Jacobs decided to turn a negative into a positive by building an amusement park in his back yard.

"With a lot of snow and the hill I have in my back yard, I have kids that wanted to go down it and it was getting out of control," Jacobs said. "They were getting close to running into some fruit trees. And I thought that's not going to happen. So I had to start building banks and one thing led to another and we have about a 350 foot tubing run now."

Jacobs says it's the simple things in life he's looking forward to most when it warms up.

"I'm excited to be able to someday mow my lawn again," Jacobs said.