Good morning,
And just like that, we’re halfway through November! Although mother nature has given us a beautiful and warm fall season (at least until today), our crews have been working extremely hard to get WCRC ready for the first snowfall. In fact, our night patrol starts this weekend, which marks our official readiness for the winter season.
On Tuesday, WCRC held its first ever “Rodeo” show with the Michigan County Road Commission Self-Insurance Pool (MCRCSIP) at the Northeast Service Center. The purpose of this event was to equip our newer drivers with training and resources that would prepare them for what they may encounter out on the roads. With a mix of informational videos and hands-on training, this event helped educate our new drivers on defensive driving techniques and equipment inspections. After a morning of training, drivers then got to test their skills through a driving course. Considering that nearly a third of our operation crews are considered “new drivers” (i.e., 1 – 3 years), this event was a great step towards creating a safer and more experienced work force. Additionally, a handful of crew members from our neighboring road commissions joined in all the fun! A special shout out to Kraig Timmer for coordinating this event, as well as Tim Hackbarth and Andy Coppernoll for demonstrating pre-trip equipment inspections so well!
Later in the day, Matt and I attended a meeting to discuss renewing the Four-Year County-wide Roads & Non-Motorized Millage with the county BOC, WCPARC, and our board of road commissioners. During this meeting, we continued to stress the importance of this millage and how much work we are able to accomplish to improve and preserve the county road system. Our efforts to request that this millage renewal be placed on the 2024 ballot will continue. Please feel free to educate residents on how this millage works, and how it supports advancing infrastructure in Washtenaw County. We hope to have much more to share on this topic in the future!
And lastly, I hope everyone had a successful opening day on Wednesday. If you have any pictures you would like to share, please submit them to the communications team by next Wednesday. We will be having our own virtual buck pole.
It looks like the temperatures are starting to drop this weekend. Good thing we are prepared for whatever mother nature throws at us!
Take care & stay safe,
Sheryl
