Early Snow Won't Faze Vernon's DPW Cowboys

Ok … so there's a little snow in the weekend forecast.

When asked if he and the crews were ready, Vernon Public Works Director Robert Kleinhans just chuckled about it.

"People are calling, asking, 'Are you ready? Are you ready?' Of Course we are ready. It's not like we forgot how to plow snow."

Kleinhans can afford to be funny after the showing three local DPW staffers had in the recent snowplow rodeo competition sponsored by the Connecticut Association of State Highway Officials.

The competition did not involve machine-made snow. The temperatures at Pine Meadow in Wallingford last week were too warm for that. Rather, trucks and operators navigate a course set up to simulate what they would encounter while plowing a road.

"Yeah … a lot of cones, saw horses and mailboxes," Kleinhans said.

Vernon had three stellar individual performances, won the best municipality and had an overall best-in-show vehicle.

"It was great - the fourth year in a row for best overall municipality," Kleinhans said. "But I told the foreman who had the best-in-show truck he is never getting a new one."

Vernon's Mike Baran won the six-wheel division.

Second-place in the mason dump truck division went to Vernon's Shaun Pellier. The masons are the smaller dump trucks, Kleinhans said.

Tim Moriarty of the Vernon DPW placed third in the pickup truck division.

"You can say that I have ultimate faith in my guys when it snows," Kleinhans said.

How much work the DPW crews might haves ahead of them depends on what forecast one believes:

 • Weather Channel - A weekend storm with accumulations somewhere between 6 and 12 inches in the northwest hills and 1 to 3 inches near Boston.

• AOL Weather - rain and snow showers, particularly Saturday.

• National Weather Service - Rain Saturday changing to some snow overnight into Sunday but low accumulation.


Mayor Jason McCoy said will go on as scheduled. The town's leaf collection  operation is scheduled to be in full swing by Nov. 7 and trucks and crews are already on the roadways testing the vacuum equipment.

Any show that falls is not expected to hang around too long.

"The forward-looking forecast says it is going to be 50 next week, so I see no problems," Kleinhans said.