ON THE JOB IN HOPEWELL VALLEY
By John Tredrea
Editor’s Note: This is another in the series of portraits of people at work.
Just do it. That’s the deal for snowplow operators when a winter storm hits.
"You have to open the road and keep it open. You can’t get too far behind the storm, or the snow and ice will get too heavy for the plow to move," said Tim Fenton.
Mr. Fenton, a veteran truck driver for the Hopewell Township Department of Public Works, plows narrow, winding, hilly, curbless roads in the northern section of the township.
"I plow the outskirts of the township," he said Monday afternoon. "Stony Brook Road, Mine Road, up in that area. I’ve had the same route for a long time. I use the same truck all the time. Being familiar with the area you’re plowing and with the truck you’re using makes a difference."
Another key is "knowing your limits and when you need to take a short break," said Mr. Fenton, who stayed on the job more than twice around the clock dealing with last Friday’s storm.
"We had the trucks loaded with salt by 7:30 or 8 Friday morning," he said. "First we salted all the roads. Then we plowed them. We had them all plowed for the first time by 11 or 12 Friday morning."
The snow and ice kept falling, so the plow operators kept clearing their assigned areas over and over. Mr. Fenton did his area four times during the storm. He knocked off work 9:30 Saturday morning.
"Sometimes we’re in here for days," he said in the Public Works building, surrounded by huge trucks with huge plows affixed to their snouts. "It depends on the storm. If it’s a really big one that keeps us plowing for days, they’ll call you back here after a while, so you can sleep for a few hours. Then they send you out again."
Like snowflakes, no two snowstorms are alike. "The bad thing about last week’s storm was how much warm weather we’d had previous to it," Mr. Fenton said. "All that warm weather meant the roadsides were soft. A frozen roadside is very forgiving. You’ll just ride right over it, it’s like a rock. But a soft roadside you’ll sink right into and get stuck. It’s happened to me a number of times."
A soft roadside reduces the margin for error significantly. "You want to plow the road wide enough. That’s my job. But, on the other hand, you don’t want to stray over the edge and get stuck in the soft ground. It’s a fine line."
Waiting until all the snow (or ice) has fallen and clearing the road all at once is not an option, for several reasons. "If there’s a fire or first aid or police matter during the storm, emergency vehicles have to get through," said Mr. Fenton, who’s been a volunteer with the Hopewell Fire Department (in Hopewell Borough) for 26 years. "And last Friday’s storm is an example of this the stuff will get too heavy to move if you let it all come down before plowing it. There was a lot of ice falling during this storm. Ice is very heavy. If it gets too heavy, you won’t be able to move it. Your plow will just buckle if you try. But even with very fine powdered snow, a depth of 5 or 6 inches gets to be very heavy. So you have to keep going to stay ahead of the storm."
The plow does not break when it buckles. By means of a spring mechanism activated by too much weight or resistance from a hidden manhole cover, for instance the plow drops face down to the ground. Without this device, the plow would simply snap.
Other modernizations of plows also help, he said. "You can adjust the angles of these plows now," he said. "When I started, you couldn’t do that. The plows were fixed. You can also adjust the width of the area you’re plowing. I had to plow a narrow width Friday, because the stuff on the road was so heavy. If I had tried to use the full width, the plow would have just buckled.
"You go by feel a lot when you’re plowing," he added. "And you go by sound, by the sound of the plow." No matter how cold it is, he plows with his driver’s side window wide open. "I can really hear the plow that way," he said. "I keep the heater on full blast. Most plow drivers open their window at least a crack, so they can hear the plow. I like mine all the way open.
"Another thing you do is watch how the snow comes off the plow. It’s all common sense, really. You use your eyes and ears and sense of touch and adjust accordingly," he said.
All that concentration means one must be wary of tunnel vision. "You have to pay close attention, of course, but you don’t want to get too locked into it," he said. "Tunnel vision can hit you and you must avoid it. Especially when school is closed for a snowstorm, your eyes have to be absolutely everywhere all the time. Kids on sleds can pop up in an instant and sometimes they are really moving. You’re on ice and so are they. You have to be ready for them."
Unplowed roads are hazardous and, like any drivers, snowplow operators need to exercise caution. "Oh, you can start sliding around the road, all right," Mr. Fenton said. "You’ve got to watch it." He grinned good-naturedly. "It’s an unplowed road that’s why I’m on it in the first place, right? Some people think plows are immune to the hazards of snow, but they’re not. We’re vehicles, too.
"Another misconception some people have is about road salt. They think they’re fine if they’re riding behind a truck salting the road. That’s not so. The effect of the salt is not immediate. It does start to work fast you can see it but it takes 30 minutes or so to work its way all the way down to the pavement. It doesn’t loosen up the snow and ice right away," he said.
That’s why Public Works salts the roads completely before starting to plow them, he said. Plowing doesn’t start until there are 2 inches of snow on the roads.
Sometimes flying plowed snow will snap a mailbox post or block in a car. "You have to work around cars left in the road," he said. "It slows you down. Some people, especially out Titusville way, have no driveways, so their cars are in the road. Most of the time, snow hitting a mailbox will have no effect. But if it’s an old mailbox post and what you’re plowing is heavy, one will break once in a while. You hate to see it happen. But I have to plow the road wide enough for vehicles to be able to get through. You have to open the road. You just do the best you can, same as any job."
What about fatigue from long hours of intense concentration?
"You know your limitations," he said. "You know when you need to stop for a few minutes. We get dinner breaks. You get into a zone with this kind of work. And you get a second wind. It lasts a long time, usually well beyond when you stop working. I never can fall right asleep when I get home after plowing. My second wind won’t let me sleep until I’ve been home for quite a while."
Mr. Fenton, 44, grew up in Hopewell Borough, graduated from Hopewell Valley Central High School, lived in Hopewell Township for a while and currently lives in Pennington. He joined the township Department of Public Works as a laborer in 1991. He became a full-time truck driver with the department a few years later. He’s been a member of Hopewell Borough’s fire company since he was 16 and is a former township fire commissioner.
There’s plenty for him and his truck to do between snowstorms, he said. "Blacktopping, oiling and stoning roads, cleaning ditches, laying pipes. All kinds of stuff. I like my job. It’s all attention to detail. It’s outdoors, it’s physically active, and you feel good about it because you know the things you’re doing really need to get done."
For relaxation while off duty, Mr. Fenton enjoys the world of dirt track automobile racing. "I work on race cars," he said. "I’m with the pit crew of Wade Henderson, a race driver who lives in Lawrenceville. He races down in Bridgeport, at the Georgetown Speedway in Delaware and some other places. I’ve been with him three years. I enjoy it."
Has he ever raced the car himself? Does he want to?
"No," Mr. Fenton said with a smile of certainty. "I just work on them. The racing part isn’t for me."

