GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – While the Packers are away from Lambeau Field, snowplow drivers were there Thursday to play.
The annual American Public Works Association Snow Plow Rodeo took place at the Lambeau Field Parking lot.
Drivers from all over the state got to show what they can do with a plow, competing in a course that simulates what they might encounter when plowing snow.
Mike Handler is with the Neenah Street Department and has 29 years of experience operating a plow. He says this was his first rodeo.
“It is harder the stuff we see out there. The cones are extremely tight and I don’t know how this is going to turn out, we will see.”
The cones are set up to force drivers to perform maneuvers that they would while plowing.
Green Bay Public Works Director Steve Griener says that includes operating through roundabouts, culdesacs and with vehicles parked around them. He says the drivers are also timed.
“It is not necessarily an obstacle course,” he said. It is something that is worthwhile and something that our guys enjoy participating in.”
Griener says it gives drivers a chance to brush up on skills before the winter and it is an opportunity to visit with other people in the same line of work statewide.
“Just enjoy the comradery with everybody and have a good time, plus I will feel pretty good about myself if I don’t hit a cone.”
The top two scoring drivers qualified for Nationals in Colorado later this month.
