INDOT battles Mother Nature all winter long
(Talk of the Town photos by Jennifer Zartman Romano) Above, a glimpse of downtown Columbia City from the vantage point of an INDOT snowplow. Below, inside the snowplow as it clears the roadway on SR 9 south.
By Jennifer Zartman Romano
In the wee hours of the morning, a storm rages outside, snow blowing wildly across the landscape of Whitley County. Up and down the state highways that wind through the county, flashing yellow lights beam through the night and the roar of snowblades can be heard as they tear down the roadway.
Indeed, Indiana Department of Transportation snowplow drivers, from their unit in Laud, are dispatched throughout the county and beyond to battle Mother Nature at any hour – often making it possible for the county’s main thoroughfares to be passable by the morning.
Driving his snowplow, one of 11 trucks operated by INDOT at the local Laud Unit south on SR 9 in rural Whitley County, veteran driver Perry Ramsey moves steadily down east Van Buren Street pushing the snowplow’s blades over the pavement, making adjustments as he went.
From the seat of the plow, Ramsey can adjust the amount of salt on the roadway and the direction of the plow’s blade at nearly the touch of a button, but the skill of knowing how and why to maneuver the snow, ice and slush is a different matter. 
“You have to lay over and clear that out or you get a heavy slush and later that will turn to ice,” he said as he moved the blade toward the center of the road in hopes of removing a portion of the now-building brown ice mixture in the middle of the road.
Up and down the road, Ramsey works to clear the traffic lanes and once as clear as possible, he’ll work on his next pass to clear out the center and the sides to expose as much clear pavement as possible for motorists to drive on.
“Slush is the worst,” he said. It’s heavy, messy and covers the snow plow, frequently making it necessary to wash the truck before each shift so that lights and mechanisms are not obstructed.
“This winter hasn’t shown us much mercy yet,” Ramsey said. “We haven’t had big storms, but it has kept us busy.” Fortunately, February has been a bit of a break.
As Ramsey and fellow drivers with the Indiana Department of Transportation’s Laud Unit work to clear state highways across Whitley County, city and county crews address the roadways under their supervision. Occasionally, the routes overlap a little as they travel to reach various destinations. Blades down, the snowplow drivers are courteous and help each other out – even when they don’t have to.
Like Ramsey, a Whitley County resident, most of the other drivers live within a 10-mile radius of the Laud Unit. This close proximity is helpful when they may be called out at any time, day or night to do what is sometimes impossible – challenge Mother Nature.
“Mother Nature is far mightier than we are,” Ramsey said.