• Two of the road commission's trucks equipped with various tools for keeping the roads safe in the winter

UPDATE: INGHAM COUNTY - The Ingham County Road Commission is already preparing for winter.

Duane Yerks, Fleet Manager of Ingham County's Road Commission says he's been involved with the road commission for 29 years and every winter has been different.

"Right now we're preparing trucks, we're preparing the salt spreaders that fit in the trucks that do the winter maintenance program, and we're preparing the underbody scrapers. Any truck that is equipped with a spreader and is capable of running a plow -that's our main focus right now. These are considered our multi-purpose dumps, these have live bottom conveyors in them and to prep these for winter maintenance all we need is a spinner assembly that goes on the back, which is towards the middle here and then they're ready to go for salt. So this is a slide-in salt spreader being installed into a dump truck, and then once it's completed then it's used for winter maintenance," says Yerks.

“Some of the advance weather forecasts I've heard have called for a little bit wetter winter for the great lakes' basin. We have a total of 39 operators and drivers, so we'll have three on nights and we'll have a total of 36 out during the days and then we have another half dozen we can call on in the case of a big snow, so we'll be prepared when mother nature strikes," says Bill Conklin, the road commission's Managing Director.

Conklin says residents of Ingham County should be extra cautious and drive more slowly this winter, especially during the early season's increased risk of black ice.


ORIGINAL STORY: INGHAM COUNTY - Find out how Ingham County is preparing for 2011-2012's winter season on Meridian Magazine.