Snow season underway for county plow crews

The elements are the same, the instruments change.

Plowing snow in Whitman County is an annual task performed by the Public Works department, which has begun another snow season much the same, and much different than years past.

The county now has 20 large Mack trucks with a capacity of 10 to 12 yards, a size much bigger than the fleet of five-yard trucks of 30 years ago.

“We needed to decrease costs,” said Public Works Director Mark Storey, who has been in the job since 2001. “It’s fewer people now and bigger trucks.”

The Public Works roster, which had 92 people in 2001, has 74 now.

The count...