The first snowfall of the season gave highway crews working for the South Dakota Department of Transportation an opportunity to test new equipment and get older equipment back in working order.

Gary Engle with the D.O.T. says he's never found a weather forecast that's accurate months ahead of time. So he plans his snow removal operations on the basis of typical winter conditions.

Engle says, "We've started making our salt brine for the winter use and getting it hauled to the various shops around the Hills area. Other than that we've had enough snow now that we've been out and gotten a little bit of a test or some of the equipment. We've got a few glitches with some of it that we gotta get taken care of."

The Black Hills area had an unusually small amount of snow last year, but Engle says it wouldn't be wise to plan on that happening again.

Al Van Zee