Otsego Explained: Planning for Plowing

By BILL BELLEN
OTSEGO COUNTY

Highway departments. These agencies go through immense trials and tribulations to keep the streets, roads, and highways of our country clear and safe for travel during the brunt of winter storms. But how does it all pan out the morning of a big snow? In this first issue of our new series, “Otsego Explained,” AllOtsego takes you along for the wild ride of what is required to manage our county roads.

What is the Highway Department?

The county level of highway maintenance is one component of the larger Department of Highways, Forestry and Parks. Created from the merger of the Otsego County’s independent Department of Highways and Department of Forestry and Parks in 1981, members of this agency have been tasked with the upkeep of the department’s namesake ever since. While the office’s primary services shift from season to season, the winter months of each year place a heavy focus on combatting the conditions of a frosty and bitter Mother Nature. This winter in particular has seen numerous heavy snow storms, powerful winds and frigid conditions that have kept the department on its toes.

What Does it Take?

Richard Brimmer, superintendent of Highways, Forestry and Parks for Otsego County, shared that his department currently has 19 operational tandem plows and five smaller, one-ton trucks with plows and salters attached. The tandem plows handle the primary county highways, while the more nimble one-ton vehicles clean up intersections and specific areas of concern like major hills.

Brimmer noted that each truck has a rough lifespan of eight to 10 years, but that the Otsego County Board of Representatives is supportive of switching to a five year rotational for trucks, though funding is a primary concern in pursuing such a policy.

Even with all this machine power, the county’s Highway Department is only one component of the efforts to keep the roads clear. Each level of government, whether it be villages, towns or the county itself, is responsible for the maintenance of their respective designated roads. However, these designations do not prohibit cooperation between jurisdictions.

“Our county highways are our responsibility, whether we contract them or whether we do them ourselves,” Brimmer said. “We contract with 12 towns to plow some of our roads, and also the City of Oneonta does one road for us…We pay them to take care of snow and ice operations. We provide the sand and salt material for them to put down, and they provide trucks and manpower.”

How Does it Get Done?

In standard circumstances, if the department determines there is a chance the plows may need to be deployed, 10 supervisors will depart around 2:30 a.m. to begin inspecting the roads. This crew aims to make a determination on the need to salt, sand or plow by 3:30 a.m., at which time the general crews will be called to be in by 4:30 a.m.

Plows can be deployed from numerous outposts that the Highway Department has across the county, allowing for more comprehensive coverage. Operations generally last until 10:30 p.m., being split evenly between a morning and a night crew of plowers. Brimmer explained that, while this is the standard formula, everything is heavily dependent on what given conditions are, what road treatment is needed and what level of staff is on hand.Otsego County Board of Representatives Chairman Edwin Frazier Jr. spoke to the sheer scale of mileage that has to be covered each snowstorm.

According to data from a 2022 New York State Department of Transportation county road listing, Otsego County maintains around 476.31 miles of centerline road, meaning that—when accounting for both lanes of each highway—the county is responsible for cleaning nearly 952.62 miles of pavement. Frazier highlighted the 88 bridges also under county care and applauded the coordination it takes to get the job done.

“[Richard has] constantly got his eyes on the future, what’s coming down the road, no pun intended,” Frazier remarked. “What does the weather look like? What problems do we anticipate? He really coordinates well with the other agencies that he needs to.”

What Does This Cost?

In Otsego County’s adopted budget for 2026, the Highway Department has been allocated $44,141,345.00—nearly a $10 million increase from 2025. The total amount of the 2026 budget is $153,477,579.00. Nonetheless, there are still concerns that the funding may not be enough.

“I was a highway superintendent up here in Springfield for 40 years,” shared Rep. Keith McCarty, chair of the Public Works Committee. “Salt used to be not too expensive back in those days, but now you’re looking at $70.00 or $80.00 a ton, and so [Richard’s] gone to a salt and sand mixture, which lowers the price down and gives better grip.”

Brimmer estimated the average cost of each deployment of the plows to be about $8,000.00, though again emphasized the number varies wildly depending on circumstances. He recounted that the department spends around $1.1 million on salt and $300,000.00 on sand each year, as well as an additional $300,000.00 in solely overtime pay. Contracting with towns came in at around $1 million in expenses in 2025.

Though not meeting the board’s goals of fleet rotation, the department does still purchase new plows annually, with the last four years ranging between three and five acquired per year.

“We try to keep the fleet updated,” Brimmer stated. “The newer vehicles don’t last as long as the older ones for sure…You gotta try to keep reliable stuff so that you don’t have downtime. The downtime just really hurts, that’s what people see. I’ve been asked several different times by different board members, ‘What’s the cost? What does it cost for that part or that breakdown?’ It’s more the downtime. The parts are expensive. We spend well over a half-a-million dollars in parts in a year. But it’s that downtime. Now instead of it taking two hours to do one run, it’s three.”

Though downtimes can be plenty concerning on their own, they arguably take a backseat to the primary issue facing the Highway Department today: staffing.

How Are They Holding Up?

At the moment, the Highway Department is short six positions, not including any staff out sick. Brimmer noted that when crews go out short a truck, the other plowers will pick up the slack and split the footprint where the out-of-commission plow should have been. When dealing with shortages on this level, the public tends to only see minimal plowing delays of roughly half an hour. But, when staffing shortages, downtimes, and sickness compound, it can severely hamper the department’s capabilities.

“We don’t have people knocking down our door to come in. We get one to two applications a month,” Brimmer said. “We compete with the towns and state DOT for the same people…At the end of the day, a lot of us are hurting, so, maybe this isn’t a fit for them, but maybe they’re going to go to a town or to DOT. That will help them out.”

“We have a vacancy rate of 15 to 18 percent [county-wide],” Frazier stated. “Unemployment changed this year and they really increased what [plowers] could collect staying home. Quite a few have decided not to work in the winter and just take the unemployment instead…They can’t blacktop in the winter and they’re driving trucks in the summer, so they could supplement their income. But we can’t really pay above what some of them would like in order to entice them to come into work.”

Moving Forward

While the future of the Highway Department may seem grim to some, there is plenty of hope on the horizon. The county board recently approved a new contract with the CSEA union that Brimmer explained includes a number of “very nice incentives for our plow drivers.”

Frazier and McCarty both exclaimed their continued faith in the skills of the county’s plowers.

“We have a very, very dedicated crew,” Frazier said. “[They] come in very early. They stay very late. They work under the worst possible conditions in order to make sure that our roads are safe for everyone that needs to be out there. Just respect them and be considerate of the plows on the road…Thank one of them when you see them. That’s all I would ask.”

Alongside a continued push for recruiting and publicizing by the Public Works Committee and county board, the Highway Department is continuing to do its utmost to serve its citizens. Despite the department undoubtedly facing some headwinds, Brimmer is confident that his department can handle what lies ahead.

When asked about their plans for moving forward as a department, Brimmer answered simply, “It’s nothing new. This is what we do every year.”