DIRT ROADS ARE A THING OF THE PAST
Woodcock seeks to keep Wilton Highway Superintendent post
WILTON, N.Y. >> Kirkland Woodcock, Highway Superintendent for the Town of Wilton is up for re-election to the position he has held for 32 years in November’s election.
The following is a conversation with Woodcock in which he prefers to highlight the operations, tasks and accomplishments he has achieved over his last term as Highway Superintendent for the Town of Wilton rather than to engage in political discussion.
He reviews his past years of service, the tasks ahead of him and his staff as they prepare once again to keep the roadways of the town of Wilton safe throughout the winter season ahead, and insider detail about the vehicles and equipment used to do the job.
••• What’s new in the Highway Department in the Town of Wilton?
“We’re in the process of gearing up for winter; it takes a lot of work. Believe it or not, we plow with 16 trucks every storm. It’s harder now to get staff to maintain what we have to do. I have 220 lane miles of road in the Town of Wilton, so that’s why it takes that much equipment to get it done.
“We do town roads and one state road that goes up Mt. McGregor Road to what was the Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility, but they pay us to do that. Until they decide what they’re going to do with the road, I don’t have a problem with right now.
“But when you’re gearing up to make it as safe as we can in the winter for the residents of this community, it becomes important. If were not ready, that’s going to upset the residents. They need us to get back and forth to work safely, and to keep the roads clear in the event of an emergency.
“We get called by the squad (emergency squad), the fire houses, the State police, and the Saratoga County Sheriff’s Office, so we have prior notice of when the roads are starting to need attention. That line of communication is very important with any Highway Superintendent, no matter where you are.
“They’re out there in the middle of the night when we’re all sleeping. If it starts storming, I get up and get things going, and away we go to come in and do our job. It’s my responsibility to get my foreman and the crew in. That takes time.
“We have about 25-28 people to bring in, get the trucks ready, and loaded.
“My whole thing about the job is I’ve always wanted to act instead of reacting. If we act in advance and prepare, then we should be able to react to anything that might happen in the wintertime. We have one shift;
I don’t have enough staff to have more.
“Most live close to the garage but we have a few that live 7 or more miles away, it takes time to get their cars cleared off to come in. My guys could be on the road for 10, 12, 15 hours at a time.”
••• I recall you have part time and seasonal help, as well. Are they included in the 25-28 you referenced?
“Yes; most are responders and are pretty good. If we don’t have the staff, we go with what we have. If we have to cut off an area to make it work, we will.”
••• You had a new truck last year, didn’t you?
“Yes. What our Town Board is trying to do is to maintain the Highway Department budget-wise to get a new truck every year because if you did that, our trucks are 17, 18 years old and it’s time to replace, so we’re on a ladder, like year after year after year to, most of the time, replace the oldest one and bring in a new one.
“This year that probably won’t happen because I’ve got to put in for a big loader, a machine that we load our trucks with. We have a big and a little one. We load trucks with salt, sand-whatever the temperature is at that time. If it’s really, really cold we’ll run a mix of salt and sand; if it’s above 15 degrees, where salt works very well, then we’ll run straight salt. There are options.
“I watch the road and air temperatures; it might be warmer in the air than on the road or vice versa. I have to analyze that because if you don’t you could be using product that costs more money and I don’t want to waste money.”
••• You’re bringing up some important factors. People tend to take having good road conditions as a simple matter when there is a science involved in maintaining safe roadways.
“It is requiring more thought because of the nature of the environment. I’m not up climate change but what I have is 32 years of experience that tells me yes, use salt or no, it’s too cold, we have to blend the salt with sand to make it work better.
“When the sun comes out, the sand is a darker color that warms the road
up and makes the salt work faster.”
••• That goes back to watching simple indicators in nature, like seeing birds circling at the horizon over water and you know there are fish there.
“I love the job I’m doing; I’ve been here half my life. I grew up in this town. My family is big, with three sets of twins, so it really means something to me. The town means something to me.
“I’m not keen to get involved in personalities or politics. You gotta do your job for the town; that’s all you gotta do. Then go home and be happy. You know what I’m saying?
“The era of dirt roads is gone in the Town of Wilton. We’re into new and modern types of construction. That’s why I go to Cornell every year to bring back some of that information to help me do my job and to help the town board members to make informed decisions of how much money they’re going to give me to work with.
“If they don’t know, they’re going to say “Here’s $100 buck, go with it,” when you know a thousand wouldn’t do it-you know what I’m saying? I have a good line of communication with the town board. They’ve worked very well with me for a long period of time.
“Could we do better? We could, but we gotta be careful of sales and mortgage taxes because I don’t want to see a town tax either, I still live here. Anything I donor or in the future down the road is going to have an impact on me when I retire. I look at it that way.
“I don’t want residents to miss work because I didn’t do my job. Even when we’re paving in the summertime. We have a pretty good administration.”
••• With Art Johnson’s retirement this year, John Lant and Nancy Dwyer are running for Town Supervisor in November’s election.
“We also have people running for town board seats and two people others for town justice positions.”
Actually, there are three candidates running for town justice in Wilton. We also have Democrat Richard Wolfe. Let’s return to preparing for the winter.
“We do have to gear up early because last year we were plowing snow from October until April. It was the worst year since I’ve been here. We used 3,000 yards of sand last year and 7,000 tons of salt and my norm is maybe 5,000 tons.”
••• You said that last year. Anyone driving by can see the salt shed out behind the Town Complex on Traver Road.
“Our sand pile is next to it. We let our residents come in and get sand whenever they int-not commercial, residents, for an ice storm. That’s a little benefit for the Town. You get some elderly people you don’t want anything to happen to, so we tell them ‘Here’s the sand pile, come over and get some to sprinkle your walk with.’ Whatever makes it safer for them.
“We do the cemeteries. We have 15 that we care for all the time; two right here on Ballard Road, one on Louden Road-there are only three or four graves there. They’re scattered all over the town. We have one on Route 9 behind the ARC Building and the Wilton Campus of SUNY Adirondack on Mountain Ledge Terrace. All the flags are on the veterans graves, they’re all trimmed. My guys do that. No other town that I know of does that. A big part of my job is in the details.”
••• You have a hot box asphalt reclaimer.
“This is the second year we can hot patch the roads in the wintertime. It worked very well last year. That was a successful purchase.”
••• Do you share services with surrounding municipalities? “When the Governor talks about shared serviceswe’ve been doing that for the 32 years I’ve been here. He evidently doesn’t know the information he should have; we already do it. If another town needs 15 trucks, we’ve got them and we in turn help other them.”
••• Is there any tracking of that? Hour for hour?
“No, no, no. We do it within reason. If a guy sends me three trucks, I’ll send him three. If a guy takes some salt, usually, it’s a truckload, okay? I call the Saratoga County Superintendant and he replenishes more than he ever used. That’s a good connection with the County or even the State of New York. If I run out, and I need some, the good connections help the whole area.”
••• What is the new truck you purchased this year that you wanted the readers to know about?
“It’s a 2020 Western Star. It’s a big tandem truck. Brand new. It’s an 18 wheel dump truck. We added a pick up truck this spring, a regular work truck. It’s part of the foreman’s office. I have three. We are the four who are always available for an emergency in the Town of Wilton. I like it that way. We have what we need to respond.”
••• This is just used for Town business, is that correct?
“Yes. I park my truck behind my house on Friday nights and use my own on my own time, unless we have an emergency. It’s not appropriate, otherwise. That would be abuse. You won’t see me going here, going there, moving furniture, driving my family around. That shouldn’t happen.”
••• You play by the rules, do you?
“I’m very cautious in my public life because I have to set an example for my workers. There are cameras all over the place now.
“One thing I’m doing is to pile up wood we’ve cut down along the roadside and posting it on Auctions International for people to bid on for firewood. We turn that product into money. And I’m cheap. I’m not into Volkswagon or Mercedes. Something in between that we’ll get longevity out of. I don’t need the Cadillac of everything.
“The residents have to know there is a lot to getting ready for winter. We have to strip all the trucks for summertime use and equip them for wintertime use. It takes time. Snow and wing plows, the safety gear, check all the lights, maintenance and inspections to avoid breakdowns in the winter. Doesn’t do anybody any good if that truck’s in the shop.
“Somebody isn’t getting plowed and that’s not fair. I think we’ve been doing fairly well.
“All our roads are open in three and a half hours or less. Someone has been on then plowing.”
••• You mentioned looking at the Farmer’s Almanac for the weather.
“That and Channels 6, 10, and 13 on television news. I listen to what the guys have got to say, but I go with my gut feeling, based on experience.
“Take the law of averages. How many times do they say you’re going to get two inches, I get outside and there’s a foot and a half of snow.You go with your gut
feeling.”
••• Which areas are particularly difficult to plow in Wilton?
“The area by the Wilton Mall is very difficult because people won’t pay attention to the trucks. They drive right alongside that winged plow; worst place to be. Route 50, Louden Road, and Weibel Avenue are all part of the Town of Wilton and probably the busiest place. Then we have the Corinth Mountain Road.”
••• That’s a steep incline. “I have to keep a truck there all through a storm because you won’t get up and down if I don’t. The traffic in town now is different that it was 30 years ago. People are not paying attention and they’re talking on their phones all the time.”
••• I have been rear-ended and my car hit at least three times in that area.
“My flagmen and construction people have to be so careful, even with that “Move Over” law. People do not abide by it. We have to be cautious. They swear and curse at our flagmen. I’ve been called every name in the book while flagging traffic. I’m thinking ‘Wait a minute; I’m only here as a safety officer trying to help you get through a construction zone.’
“It’s not one group of people. The attitude now is “I’m in a hurry-get out of my way.”