This is NOT who you want to see in the driver’s seat of a snow plow coming down your street. It’s me, Scott Neal, City Manager behind the wheel of that snow plow. If you see me on your street this winter, you can assume the City is having a very significant snow plow staffing shortage. Very significant.
Now THIS is who you want to see behind the wheel of the snow plow. This is Larry Doig and he’s been plowing snow for the City of Eden Prairie for almost thirty years. He knows what he’s doing, and he can explain it well too. Larry gave me his one hour “Snow Plowing 101″ training course last Thursday at the City’s new outdoor storage site out by the airport.
Before you can operate a snow plow, the driver must complete a vehicle inspection process that Larry calls the “cold steel walk around.” It involves a visual inspection of all moving parts of the truck and the plow apparatus.
See the edge of this plow blade. When it was new, it was flat and sharp and had a straight edge. This is the part of the blade that rubs against the curb of the street. It’s been rounded off through one season of plowing. It’s still OK to use this year, but probably not the year after.
This is the view from the truck looking straight out over the hood at the plow. The far edge of the plow sticks out twelve feet from the driver’s seat. It takes some skill to maneuver the truck and blade on a nice day. Now think about driving it during a snow storm at 4:00 a.m. This is a tough job.
This is a shot of the hydraulics equipment that control the plow. It is a complex machine, but it must stand up to the worst elements of our weather.
This is Larry Doig. Larry and his coworkers in the Eden Prairie Street Maintenance Division know what they’re doing when it comes to moving snow off Eden Prairie’s streets. This is definitely the guy you want to see behind the wheel of a snow plow. And after having the chance to get behind the wheel of a snow plow myself on a warm October day, nobody knows that better than me now.
