The City of St. Joseph’s snow plows clear the streets for the snowy weekend

Carter Ostermiller

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (KQTV) — Saturday morning, the city of St. Joseph woke up to some winter conditions.

With temperatures in the single digits and snow on the ground, the streets needed to be cleared.

SIMR, which stands for street maintenance and repair, enables cars to drive around the city.

Jeremy Davis works on signal lights for St. Joseph and has been with SIMR for 6 years.

During winter weather, Davis and other SIMR workers shift from their regular tasks to plowing streets, helping the city recover after each snowfall.

For Davis, his snowplowing shift is 12 hours, from 7 am to 7 pm.

This is a job Davis calls difficult but not hard, because he believes anyone can be taught it.

“A difficult job is a never-ending task, where it snows again, there will be more potholes, or someone might hit a light. Stuff like that,” said Davis.

Davis showed how the truck plows snow and spreads salt on the roads.

The job tracks storms in a way that can keep plows working for days.

“We measure storms not in hours, but in days. How many days did it take to whip up that storm? With a big storm, you’re going to be out there a couple, maybe three days,” said Davis.

For Davis and the other snowplow drivers, the day is done only after all their routes are finished, but more snow can always arrive.