The winner of this year’s Van Buren County Road Commission Paint the Plow competition is South Haven Baseline Middle School.
Road Commission Managing Director Bret Witkowski tells us this is the second year for the Paint the Plow outreach program, developed as a way to interact with young people and show them what the road commission does. They worked with middles schools this year.
“We take the big plow that goes in front of the truck, we deliver it to each of the schools, and then we put acrylic on it, clean it up,” Witkowski said. “They submit drawings from the kids, and then what they do is during their lunchtime or class time or after school, they paint them.”
Students from the middle schools in Bloomingdale, Decatur, Gobles, Lawrence, and South Haven took part this year. They’ve all painted their plows with a winter theme, and the public could vote on its favorites.
“They’re pretty darn good. Some of them are really good. And then the other thing that we do is then we have plows in the Bangor, South Haven area. So when they’re not being used, we put them out there so people in public can see them in those areas.”
Witkowski says they’ll also get used during regular plowing operations. For now, the painted plows are on display — and under surveillance — at the Van Buren County Road Commission’s Lawrence garage.
Now that the plow submitted by South Haven has been named Van Buren County Favorite, the students will receive a pizza party paid for by Witkowski.
