Tanner takes job by storm

By Jaime Thomas

Bad weather conditions seem to have joined together last week to give incoming Highway Superintendent Eric Towne a test on his first day.

Fortunately he seems to have passed.

Towne, who official started the job on Jan. 1, said the snowstorm was “no problem and business as usual” after 20-plus years with the highway department.

“The transition was pretty easy. It was thinking ahead and keeping everything moving smoothly,” Towne said of his role.

He said handling the storm was similar to previous weather events, but this time it was him making the decisions instead of John Tanner, who officially retired last week from the position.

Though he didn’t ask for any guidance from Tanner, he said the former superintendent had prepared him well.

“I’m pretty thankful for everything I was taught by John Tanner along the way with the way to do things and how it works; he made things easy for me,” Towne said.

The crew was able to break for a few hours during the night for some rest and started out at 5 a.m. Friday morning in below-zero temperatures. Towne said he was planning on recoating the roads with a sand and salt mixture later in the day and was preparing for a forecast wintry mix for earlier this week.