County crews learns grader skills, maintenance

Sanders County road district employees went back to school last week to learn more about road graders.

Eighteen men from the county's three road districts attended the Caterpillar Motor Grader class. The morning session was held at the courthouse in Thompson Falls. In the classroom they watched a slideshow conducted by Jacob Lauderdale Western States Equipment Company out of Liberty Lake, Washington which sells Caterpillar equipment. They learned in-depth handling and maintenance of a road grader. Many of the attendees who have been working for the county have learned the basics, but the class offered more information for them, as well as the new hirees.

Bill Hamilton from the Missoula store organized the class through District 3 Commissioner Tony Cox. The Kalispell regional sales rep for Sanders County, Nels Hammack, orchestrated the free class for the county. "The class normally costs $2,000 per person," Lauderdale said.

"There's a lot of experience in the crews, but we learned some valuable stuff today," said Jeff Nester of Plains. He said there are a lot of new people who have benefitted from the class.

In the afternoon the class went to Harlow Road in Thompson Falls to practice hands-on training. They learned computer functions of the grader as well as how to swivel the disc that holds the blade. The disc lifts the blade and then flips it up vertically for maintenance and cleaning of both blade and disc.

The graders used for training were from districts 1 and 3. District 1 covers Hot Springs and Dixon, district 2 is Plains and Thompson Falls, and district 3 covers Trout Creek, Noxon and Heron. Willie Ovitt from Plains, the District 1 foreman, explained that the machine has to run idle for several minutes in order to regenerate and clean the exhaust system. Crew members waited for this process before continuing with training.

"Climate affects road maintenance," District 3 employee Tom Lampshire said. "People don't realize how much road conditions dictate our work. A crusty road surface, like this road today, is like digging up asphalt to a grader. We try to accommodate everyone's needs with the vast amount of roads. We have a cycle. We learn to run under the best conditions possible for the road and the public," he said. The blades on the graders have different edging for various conditions. Picks on the grader used for the class rotate and can be replaced individually. Lampshire said they last up to three years. The blade they attach to can last six years. A regular grader blade without picks can wear out in a week. There are special blades used as ice picks. They have reliefs - or spacers - in them that cut up the ice on roads.

The Caterpillar grader has eight gears, but only goes 30 miles an hour. "Go slow or don't go. That is the motto for grader handling," Ovitt said.

"It has been a fantastic day. We have been excited about collaborating with the counties in our regions to keep the general public happy and the road crew employees happy. It's always great to show off a cool machine," Lauderdale said. "Hammack wanted to create a good standing and better relationship with his customers by offering this free class to Sanders County," he concluded.