Road commission, friendly neighbors help clear roads in Cass County

CASSOPOLIS, Mich. -- Cass County may be smaller, but they’ve still got 50,000 residents for their team of just 22 drivers to get to each day.

“It’s the satisfaction of doing something for our public,” said Bob Thompson, Managing Director at the Cass County Road Commission.

Thompson said his team may have less resources than their neighboring, bigger counties, but despite that – plus dealing with all the COVID impacts – they’ve still managed to once again get the job done.

“We have 22 routes and had full coverage yesterday; we always have about one COVID employee out a week.”

The road commission decided to take a video inside one of their plow trucks to invite people into what they don’t see – eight hours of carefully getting through loads of snow – and it gets tense. 

“One of the girls in the office made arrangements for a ride along and then she put together a narrative and we’ve had so many positive responses,” said Thompson. 

One person who already had the road department’s appreciation – Cassopolis resident Chris Jenkins.

“It’s fun and a good way to spend your time,” said Jenkins. 

What started with raking leaves for his neighbors on South O’Keefe Street turned into offering to clear their sidewalks in the winter.

“He had asked me yesterday if I knew anybody who needed help, so I made a post on Facebook to let them know he’s making rounds,” said Courtney White, Jenkins’s sister.

While people have given him money as a thank you, this wasn’t meant to be a second job.

Jenkins does however hope to eventually make his way from South to North O’Keefe – into the road commission’s building as a driver himself. 

“It’s definitely a short-term goal because I feel like I could work all day at my job now and then stay up all night just plowing, but that’s just me.”