Better days are hopefully ahead for the new plow in Lexington which, depending on your perspective, is late for this winter or early for next.
By Michael Ryan
LEXINGTON - The respectful courtesy of a quiet night off was extended to Lexington highway superintendent Kevin Simmons, recently, though the respite was short-lived, which was no surprise.
Simmons regularly attends monthly town council meetings, providing updates on his department, being told by town supervisor Jo Ellen Schermerhorn it would be okay to miss the February 4 session.
Winter storms, while not heavy to that point, were persistent and “rough on the highway crew,” Schermerhorn said, a reality likewise experienced by town councilman Michael Barcone.
Barcone lives in the far reaches of Spruceton Valley where the sun doesn’t shine the same as elsewhere, blocked by the high hills.
This season’s nuisance snow and ice occurrences have been “brutal,” Barcone said. “I’m sanding my driveway more than ever.”
Highway guys will tell you it goes with the territory but Schermerhorn said, and fellow board members agreed, “they’re putting in long hours so we wanted Kevin to stay home if he’d like.”
Simmons liked, but in less than 48 hours he and his men were back at it, wrangling with a nasty mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain, Thursday.
And that was only the half of it. The department was also dealing with the unexpected absence of their newest plow truck which was supposed to have been returned to the fleet the previous day.
The 2025 Freightliner, costing around $290,000 with all the extras and warranties, arrived last summer, hitting the road in earnest for the Thanksgiving snowfall.
Everything went fine until the guys returned to quarters and were, “giving it its first bath,” Simmons says, when things unraveled.
“Something blew out in the steering box,” Simmons says, “I’d been hoping we’d make it through the winter without one truck breaking down. There went that out the window.”
The plow went in for repairs that went slower than molasses in January, finally getting done, so Simmons drove up to the Albany repair shop, February 5, whistling a happy tune before it turned to dissonance.
“The parking lot was all ice. We were spinning, trying to get out of the lot and it wouldn’t go into four-wheel drive,” Simmons says.
“We found out the four-wheel drive wasn’t working. Actually we found out it wouldn’t have worked when we had it here in Lexington last summer.
“There were no wires to it. That was somebody’s goof up. We figured we might as well leave it in Albany,” Simmons says, keeping his fingers crossed it would be back in service this week.
“I was talking to the dealer. They said they had a nationwide shortage on steering boxes which is why it took so long,” Simmons says, noting the town planned on getting a 2024 model, ending up with the 2025.
And that isn’t all there is to the story. Simmons, blue collar to the bone, has been local roads boss for three years, growing up in West Kill.
“I’ve lived here my whole life,” Simmons says, joining the fire department at the age of sixteen, now serving as assistant fire chief, working for 20 years on a garbage route with Bruce Feml before switching careers.
He’s playing the hand being dealt, like many area road chiefs, firing up a blue-haired International snowplow while waiting for the Freightliner.
“We’re already working one man short,” Simmons says. “Then, a week ago, we had one guy out sick and another guy had a doctor’s appointment.
“If he cancelled it, he’d have had to wait two months so I told him to keep it. So we were down to one other guy and me for a while.”
As for the town board night off, “it was nice. We’ve all been extremely tired. I had some brownies and milk, watched a little TV, took a snooze in my chair and went to bed at 7:30,” Simmons says.
Schermerhorn, striving to take it all governmentally in stride, says, “this kind of thing happens, but we spent a lot of money on that plow for it not to really make it to its first winter.”
Five weeks of official winter remain. Before Simmons and the crew could put their feet up, the rainy, snowy mess hit this past weekend, and the forecasters are making Punxsutawney Phil look like a genius.
But on the cheery side, robins have been spotted at the municipal building by town clerk Charlotte Jaeger, so daffodils shall soon be stirring.
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