Plow driver works for county community's safety

SANDERS COUNTY – When the winter weather sets in, the roads become dangerously slick; it is the efforts of people like Sue Mielke, a plow driver for Sanders County, that keep the roads safe. 

Mielke has been plowing roads for approximately 20 years. She loves her job and said her number one priority is to keep the roads safe for the community with something she thoroughly enjoys doing. If she did not, she would be in a different job.

“Sometimes, when we have to put chains on [the plow], and we’re going backward with chains, we’re thinking ‘why are we here? We should be in bed like the other people,’” Mielke said. “But, it’s just part of the job and I love it.”

Mielke covers some of the areas west of Plains, including Upper Lynch, the hospital road and Cedar Creek. There are also a variety of smaller side roads to cover along the route. She recalled there are different crews who handle each area and there is not much overlap.

The road crews do everything with making the roads safe; they plow the road, then they also lay out anti-icing fluid and sand for extra traction. Sometimes this requires more than one pass, Mielke’s vehicle does not carry the anti-icing fluid and requires she either return to the garage and head out again or have someone follow her; road conditions can also sometimes require multiple passes to get snow low enough to be safe for traffic. 

“Whatever it takes, it takes, to make it safe,” Mielke said. “Our number one priority is the public’s safety, We think of them as our family. How would you treat it if it was your family, your parents or your friends out on the road? That’s kind of how we kind of look at it; the public is our family.”

On a typical day, Mielke heads out around 3 am and does not finish until around noon. The crews head out early so the roads can be made safe before the morning traffic hits them. Mielke recalled they sometimes head out even earlier, if there have been reports of freezing rain or a sudden heavy snow covers the road.

The schedule is not set in stone, though, and she will stay out ‘as long as needed’ to get the roads cleared. The job is a full-time position and the crews do not have time for much else, clocking a full 40-hour workweek.

“We try not to go over our eight hours unless we have to,” Mielke said. “At least we get a lot of the day off.”

However, driving the road plow can sometimes be an unappreciated job; people complain about the state of the roads or get frustrated when they end up behind a plow. The result can sometimes be people taking dangerous action by going out on icy roads or blaming the crew for something that would have been fixed with a little more caution and being in less of a hurry.

“Sometimes we’ll pull over and let them by,” said Mielke. “It’s up to them if they want to go in a ditch or not; all they have to do is slow down.”

She did note, though, that the majority of people are good about driving cautiously and making sure to drive according to the weather. While there are occasionally people who do not notice the weather or feel they can handle the conditions, they are more of a minority in the big picture. In all, it is all an experience she enjoys.