Otsego County two rest area and three State Highways: I-75, M-32 and the Business Loop on Old 27. One rest area is on the northbound lane just south of Gaylord and the other one is on the southbound lane just south of Vanderbilt. The State takes care of most signing, paving and bridge work on these trunklines but has contracted the Otsego County Road Commission to take care of the maintenance work. Every month we make up a bill to the State for all labor, equipment and materials used on the trunklines. It's a system that works well as it saves the State money as well as provides us with some cash flow.

We have set up a separate crew and a separate foreman for the State trunklines. There are five drivers and a rest area attendant on the State crew. Ninety-five percent of the time in the winter the I-75 drivers head North first thing in the morning. We have more drifting and, in general, more bad roads North of town so they do that first. It takes seven passes with a plow truck on I-75 to cover the whole road shoulder to shoulder. When you figure in all of the ramps, crossovers, and rest areas, we plow around 76 miles of road on I-75 alone. We start at 6:00 A.M. and by 7:00 A.M. we start getting calls asking if all the roads are plowed! If you are interested, our trucks get about 4 MPG on diesel fuel while plowing.

Some times the trucks will follow each other when plowing the trunklines. If only one truck plows, the traffic will knock snow from the unplowed areas onto the plowed path and a half hour later it looks like we didn't even plow. It is better to get it all off the driving lanes at once so it stays clean. Up to 9,000 ton of salt goes on the trunklines in the winter at a cost of $38.00 per ton. The State has a "Bare Pavement" policy on I-75 so we have to keep working on it until it is "bare". Other work done on the trunklines by us include: cleaning rest areas, blading shoulders, picking liter, mowing, patching blacktop, repairing guard rail, hauling trash and repairing right-of-way fence.

Permits for moving on Sate highways (driveway permits, sign permits, seismic permits, etc.) are all handled through the Transportation Service Center here in Gaylord. We can provide some of the forms. Other than that, we don't have anything to do with State moving permits. Most State permits are done over the telephone and fax machine. The State has its own weighmasters and they are called the Motor Carrier Division of the State Police.