“This is a unique truck,” said Jim Plemon who is with the Anoka County Transportation Department.
The truck also has a unique name.
Each year the transportation department has a snow plow on display at the county fair so residents can vote to name it. The winner for 2025 was recently announced.
“It’s going to be the Blizzard of Oz,” Plemon said. “We had a couple winners this year. They will be receiving a four-pack of water park passes donated generously by the Anoka County Parks Department.”
Name the plow trailblazers
According to Plemon the county started naming plows 21 years ago and was a trailblazer in these trendy contests that have caught on across Minnesota.
“We’ve been doing the naming of the snow plow since 2004,” Plemon said. “We get thousands of entries. It’s fun to go through all of them…We kind of get overshadowed by MnDOT because we believe we are the original name your snow plow program in the state of Minnesota.”
The Blizzard of Oz is part of the county’s fleet of 27 plows. Once the snow falls these trucks will be putting on the full court press to keep roads clear.
“Anoka County is fully staffed this year with all of our plow operators,” Plemon said. “We run 21 plow operators on the day shift which goes from 2 am to 2 pm and then we have 16 night plow operators which will go from 2 pm to 2 am. We go around the clock. As soon as the first snow flake hits the ground we’re out there until it’s all cleaned up and done and the sunshine is going.”
Some previous name-a snow-plow winners in Anoka County are Darth Blader, Blizzard Wizard, Plow Bunyan, Ctrl Salt Delete and Scoop! There it is.
