E.O. Schaub

Perhaps you’ve heard the vicious rumor that road crews here in Vermont are substandard, careless, or functioning in a fashion that would lead one to believe they wouldn’t know a culvert from a banana flambe, however I’d like to set the record straight right now. The fact is, your typical Vermont town road crew is tough, resourceful, and for most of winter functioning on three hours sleep and enough coffee to choke an elephant. It has to be. It deals with an incredible variety of difficult and dangerous situations throughout it’s every working day, not just tons of snow and sheets of black ice and stubborn mailboxes that refuse to be knocked over, but crazy stuff… stuff that would probably make your average New Jersey town road crew pee its pants, and your average North Carolina town road crew run crying home to mama. Do you think they ever worry about a moose getting stuck in the gravel screener in Florida? Of course they don’t. You see my point.

But the character of the Vermont town road crew goes far beyond this. Point in fact: we all know that harsh local winters combine with a high percentage of dirt “roads” to create plowing scenarios throughout the season that would give your average road crew member night terrors. But did you know that the Pawlet road crew finds time, in it’s busy warm-weather schedule of grading roads, driving the truck, and grading roads, to create inspired works of roadside art? It’s true. Continue reading Debunking a Vicious Rumor →