Snow battle enters 2017

The first snows of 2017 kept county snow plows out on New Year's Day and the start of the week.

The big snow and wind hit Saturday night, the last day of the year and on New Year's Day.

“Everybody was out yesterday and a lot of people out the day before,” Whitman County Public Works Director Mark Storey told county commissioners Tuesday.

He reported that two plows were damaged in the past week due to malfunction of attachment devices.

The county crew was short-handed in District One, the north segment of the county in St. John, Oakesdale, Malden, Rosalia and Lamont. Other employees were moved...