They sit in glass cages surrounded by yellow metal and the noise of screaming diesels. Their alarms go off at 5 a.m., while the rest of the city sleeps. By 6 a.m., they are on the roads of Cordova, with headphones or earplugs in place, peering over the bright glare of headlights reflecting off the latest piles of glistening snow, a team of four, riding atop graders or front end loaders, clearing our roads and streets by the time most of us are enjoying our morning lattes.
Probably the most unappreciated, and at times, the most vilified of our city and state employees, they are the snowplow crew. You know, the guys that intentionally berm in your cars, scrape away the gravel you have hauled in over the summer to smooth out your driveway, or worst of all, personally ignore the roads in front of your house.
Wrong. Just last week, one of them missed a Christmas morning breakfast of Swedish pancakes and ham at our house, a tradition that goes back to 1974, instead donning a Santa Claus hat and plowing snow all day so the emergency equipment and folks stuck on the upper hills of our inundated metropolis could have access to downtown and response centers.
Chris Mallory, Mike Arvidson, Bill Howard and Rick Johnson are their names, with back up support from reserves Charlie Voight, Bill Bernard and Chris Schultz; and their daily charge is to keep our streets clear, starting with a prioritized list that includes the fire and police halls, the hospital, and the schools. On the state side there is Robbie Mattson, Andrew Nichols, James Dundas, Dan O’Brien and Dan Jager.
This year’s almost-record-setting early snowfall has been a challenge, and it’s easy to forget that their war against the white stuff is waged with two front end loaders and two graders, plus a sander truck and a third front end loader that was in such poor shape that no one would even bid on it when the City recently put it up for surplus sale.
The exact mileage this crew covers daily isn’t clear, but the hours these guys put in is. It’s amazing the job they do, and here are some tips on things you can do to make their lives easier and speed up the work:
1. Any time you are driving, day or night, turn on your headlights. Equipment operators use this as a cue to recognize moving vehicles as opposed to parked cars. Plus, it is sure nice to see those headlights when for the 500th time in a day, you have glanced over your shoulder prior to backing up to scoop another load of the white stuff.
2. Wear reflectors and carry flashlights or some form of illumination when out trudging the streets in dark and snow. Folks walking dogs, kids sledding, pedestrians walking home—all are almost invisible in the dark and blowing snow.
3. When driving downhill, always wait until the vehicle ahead of you has made it to the bottom of the hill before you even start down. If the vehicle in front of you can’t stop, what makes you think you can? And guess who wins in a vehicle-snowplow collision?
These three items are all part of what the guys in the machines call “Snow Etiquette,” to put it politely. All have stories to tell about close calls that could have been avoided if these simple guidelines had been followed.
Also remember that both the City and State crews have clearly defined areas of maintenance. The State Department of Transportation crews have to deal with not only the airport, which is priority one, plus the Copper River Highway, which includes Main Street, as well as the road all the way out to Orca, Whitshed, and Power Creek Road. The City crews get basically everything else. And regardless of the man-power and horsepower, some days the snow wins, in the short term.
But in the long haul, the guys in the yellow and orange equipment are doing their best, and deserve our thanks, plus even a tray of cookies or a hot cup of coffee, on those days when everything seems white.