By Shannon Lukens.
Snowplow drivers are ready for a long winter ahead. Routt County Road and Bridge has 160 miles of paved roads to plow, 500 miles of graveled roads, and 106 bridges. The department is fully staffed for the winter with 32 operators maintaining the roads in three county districts.
One person who WON’T be driving a snowplow this year is Leonard Auter. He retired this summer after 42 years of being a snowplow driver and heavy equipment operator for the Routt County Road and Bridge Department.
“I’m going to miss my route a little bit and all of the people that I met on my route. I’m still friends with a lot of them. I’m going to miss some of that but I’m not going to miss the two o’clock in the morning call and the weekend being on call.”
Auter’s route included Upper Fish Creek Falls, Buffalo Pass and the Strawberry Park Hot Springs, which he said could get a little crazy once in awhile.
“Back in the day, we didn’t have the machines that we have today. The one I started out with was just a 4-wheel driver grader, and the road was not as good as it was today. I’d get plowed up to the hot springs and then I’d have to pull four or five cars to get back out of there.”
File photo
Auter said he tried to be fair to all of the residents on his route, when it came to plowing their streets and roads.
“I’d always try to be fair to everybody and I would think ‘How would I want my road to look like after it was plowed?’ What could I handle and I just tried to be fair with everybody. I wouldn’t plow anybody in on purpose. I was just doing my job.”
Auter said that this winter, he is going to sit around and relax and just “watch it snow.”
And he says he’ll keep listening to his favorite Steamboat Radio stations which he always listened to when he was plowing. Those favorites are KBCR and Easy 94-1.
Here’s more on snowplowing in Steamboat Springs and Routt County, and the Winter Driving Restrictions that are now in effect.