For the past few years, Nampa has enlisted the help of elementary students to name their snowplows. Now, the Idaho Transportation Department is joining in on the fun with its very own contest.
Broadcast on:
09 Oct 2024
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(Idaho Transportation Department)
Contests to name a snowplow are becoming more common around Idaho. It’s a great way to involve and educate kids about what road departments do each year to get ready for winter weather.
For the past two years we’ve told you about Nampa's name that plow contest where elementary school kids came up with names like "Darth Blader" and "Frosty the Snowplow."
Now the Idaho Transportation Department is joining in with its first name a snowplow contest targeted at eighth grade students who are just about the right age to start drivers training.
Ellen Mattila, public information officer with the Idaho Transportation Department, and transportation program manager Vincent Trimboli join Idaho Matters to talk more about the contest and how ITD prepares for winter road conditions.
A more Idaho matters from the studios of Boise State Public Radio News. I'm Chama Kontat. Contest to name a snow plow are becoming more common around Idaho. It's a great way to involve and educate kids about what road departments do every year to get ready for winter weather. And for the past two years, we've told you about Nampa's name that plow contest, where elementary school kids came up with names like Darth Blader and Frosty the Snow Plow. Well, now the Idaho Transportation Department is joining in the fun with its first name a snow plow contest, and it's targeted at eighth grade students who are just about the right age to start driver's training. So joining us now to tell us more about the contest and about how I.T.D. prepares for winter road conditions are Ellen Matilla, a public information officer with Idaho Transportation Department, and Vince from Bully Transportation Program Manager. I want to welcome both of you to the program. Hi, Chama. Good afternoon, gentlemen. Hi, so Ellen, let me start with you. Why did the Transportation Department want to start up its own name a snow plow contest? You know, this program has proven popular for cities like Nampa and the Aida County Highway District and also in other states, and we felt like it was a great opportunity to help spread awareness about snow plow safety and also have a little fun in the process. Okay, and so Ellen, why did you decide to really make this target eighth graders? Yeah, you know, you can get your learners permit at 14 and a half in Idaho. So a lot of those eighth graders, drivers that is on the horizon for them. So we kind of wanted to get them thinking about winter driving safety and snow plow safety as they, you know, move into that period of their lives where they're going to start learning how to drive. So how will the contest itself work, Ellen? We are asking eighth grade classrooms in Idaho to submit names. We've partnered with the Department of Ed to distribute a submission form and some things like an educational PowerPoint to teachers. So they have until the end of October to submit names and then we'll vote internally with our ITD employees to pick 12 names and assign those to plows across the state. Okay, well, I can't wait to find out what these kids come up with. I have a seventh grader and I don't know if I would trust him with naming anything. So I'm excited to see what they come up with. We have faith in Idaho's eighth graders. Good. Vince, the Idaho Transportation Department has something like 12,000 miles of roads to take care of every year. Can you talk to us a little bit how you get ready for these winter road conditions here in Idaho? Yeah, and you know, about half of those lane miles or near half of those lane miles are actually here in the Treasure Valley, Gemma, and it's a lot of work. We switch from a summer operation to a winter operation on drop of a hat. Once the snow starts flying, we have to be ready. So our mechanics and our operators are right now switching over our trucks, which in the summer have dump beds on them, and they're transitioning to winter operations where they put the hoppers for carrying the materials and the plows on the front of the trucks as well. So basically they switch them from a dump truck to a snow block. So how do you know how much salt and sand and de-iced are to have on hand every year? Because I mean, you know, sometimes we have a snowmageddon and then other times we might get cold, but we don't necessarily have much snow. Well, certainly that's the way we will see it here in the valley. We do get a fair amount up in the mountains, and quite a bit of our district is the mountainous terrain, but we have about 25,000 tons of sand right now, which fills all of our sand sheds across District 3, which is 10 counties north of New Meadows, south of Nevada, over to Glensfairy and Oregon. So we've got a pretty big swath of the area, and you know, we know every year how much we put out. We track it very diligently to keep track of the rate and the amount that we apply every year on the roads. So Vince, I know this is a question you guys get all the time, and I think, you know, some people are going to be happy about it. Some people aren't. And that is, how do you prioritize which roads that you get to first? Well, volume, I mean, primarily, you know, the interstate and through this valley, it has probably the greatest priority. But we have different areas that are responsible for different roadways. So for instance, if you're in the Weezer Midvale area, right, on the western end of our district, you have US 95 that goes north south, the primary north south freeway in Idaho. That's their primary road. They have some smaller highways that come off at like 71 that goes to Brownlee. But we'll plow that 71, but once it becomes, you know, heavy storm, we'll put all our focus on 95. It's no different than the interstate, right? We'll put our focus on the interstate and all the surrounding roadways. But if the storms gets really strong, all of the plows, maybe on the US highway or even on the state highways, will shift and prioritize around the interstate. You know, Ellen, winter driving can be frustrating, right? And, I mean, we see people get a little frustrated sometimes behind the wheel. Are you kind of hopeful that doing this contest, you know, naming these snow plows, will at least help kids maybe better understand the challenges that your department faces every winter and frankly, maybe it'll rub off on some of their parents. Yeah, we definitely want to spark conversation with families. And so hopefully if people see those named plows out there, they think twice about, you know, getting too close to them with their vehicles, they give them plenty of room to work because, you know, the safest places behind the plow, but we don't want you too close to the plow because we don't want you to slide and run into the back of it, which happened quite a few times last winter. Oh. Okay. Yeah, we don't, we don't need that. So I was just going to add, Jim, it really hits close to home for us because we want the gentlemen who take care of the roadways to come home every night in the same condition they left. So we really ask people that when they're driving around plows that they do it safely, because those guys, they're doing everything they can to make the road safe for you. So we ask that you're safe around them. No, it's such a good point. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the men and women who drive the plows, yeah. And with that said, Ellen, I'm curious. So, so once you name the winners of the Snowplow naming contest, do the kids get, get to go out and I guess meet their snow plow or how, how will that all work? Yeah. We will be bringing those plows to the schools that picked the winning name and doing what we call a snow visit and snow stands for safely navigate our winters. We have a little presentation that we do and we bring the snow plows so the kids can, you know, get up close with the equipment and sort of see what it's really like. But we also do snow visits for any school or community organization. So if that's something that you think would be really valuable to your community, we will come out and bring a snow plow and talk to you about snowplow safety. Well, it's so, it's so important. I mean, especially, I think we all kind of get a little bit green behind the wheel, right on that for snowfall. So always, always good to check in. I want to thank both of you for coming in today and talking with us. We've been speaking with Ellen Matilla, she and Vince from Bully, they're with the Idaho Transportation Department talking about the new name of snowplow contest, but also how the Idaho Transportation Department prepares for winter weather. I know it's 80 some degrees outside, but winter is going to be here before we know it. We will put links on our website for the contest, Boise State Public Radio dot org. Thanks so much for listening to Idaho Matters, Boise State Public Radio and Idaho Matters are members of the NPR Network. It's an independent coalition of public media podcasters. You can find more shows than network wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jamak Adet, we'll see you tomorrow. The candidates for November are set between now and election day, a campaign season unfolding faster. Kamala Harris is not getting a promotion than any in recent history. Make America great again. Follow it all with new episodes every weekday on the NPR Politics podcast.
