The St. Joseph Streets Department will prepare for winter weather with a rodeo. 

Interim Superintendent of St. Joseph Streets and Sewers Keven Schneider said they begin thinking about and making preparations for winter and cold weather in the middle of summer.

“We start going through our (equipment), making sure everything’s in good shape and all repaired,” Schneider said. “We also make sure that we have a (full) supply of salt.”

Schneider said around the beginning of November each year they hold a “rodeo” for operators to practice. 

“The operators run through a course with a plow and we score each obstacle that we set up and the obstacles kind of mimic what they might encounter on the street,” Schneider said. “We score that and make it kind of fun for them, but at the same time it gets them thinking snow again.” 

Prior to the rodeo, if it’s an operator’s first or second winter Schneider said they hold a two day training session to provide an introduction to policies, dos and don’ts and experience with the plows. 

“It’s kind of a fun week but it’s informative and all summer long you’ve been thinking asphalt and concrete and rock and it’s time to start thinking about snow again.”

Schneider said since they have started doing the rodeos each year, it’s helped reduce incidents.

Training week takes place the week of October 31-November 4, and the rodeo begins at 9 a.m. on November 3rd at Heritage Park.