Officials announce winners of MnDOT's Name a Snowplow contest, including Anthony Sledwards
ST. PAUL, Minn. — You'll soon have Anthony Edwards to thank for clearing snowy roads in the Twin Cities.
A plow named after the Timberwolves star is just one of the new MnDOT snowplow names. Officials on Wednesday morning announced the winners of this year's Name a Snowplow contest.
The contest started in Scotland but came to Minnesota five years ago and has been growing ever since.
Gov. Tim Walz and Minnesota Department of Transportation Commissioner Nancy Daubenberger revealed the eight winning names at a news conference:
- We're Off To See The Blizzard
- Snowtorious B.I.G.
- Plowabunga!
- Anthony Sledwards
- You're Welcome
- Don'tcha Snow
- Skol Plow
- I Came, I Thaw, I Conquered
Each plow will serve one of MnDOT's eight districts.
"I'm always thrilled that Minnesotans are this clever," Walz said. "Other governors do acknowledge they stole the idea from us at MnDOT. It's a great opportunity and I want to thank the folks at MnDOT to engage the public. To not take for granted something that's easy to take for granted. True professionals who do incredible work."
More than 7,300 names were submitted for this year's contest and the list was shortened to 50 finalists last month.
This is the fifth year of the state agency's contest, which allows the public to name a plow in each of the agency's eight districts across the state.
If you ask any one of the nearly 1,600 drivers, they'll tell you they love the names too. But even more, they love the awareness of just how complex their job is, since they're focused on more than just driving.
"There's a lot, because you're shifting your salt, plow up and down, your underbody, the plow under us and you also have your wing, said plow operator Steve Leider. "You get cars — some are gonna be doing 20, some are going to be doing 50. You just have to be paying attention the whole time."
Winning names of previous years include Taylor Drift, Dolly Plowton, Plowy McPlowFace, Darth Blader and Blizzard of Oz.
