KENT COUNTY, Mich. — No matter the day, no matter the holiday.
While winter did not ask whether we wanted it to appear at the Thanksgiving table before we even had the chance to pass the turkey, the Kent County Road Commission says it's ready regardless this weekend.
"This is what we're here to do, said Steve Roon, director of maintenance and local road construction. "We are storm responders and, when the storm comes, we respond."
If the flakes that fell earlier this month were a practice for the commission, the snow in the forecast for this week is more like a regular season game, not so dissimilar from the divisional showdown the Detroit Lions will play on Thursday.
"This is our first hearty snow of the season," Roon said. "We've got our trucks ready to go. We've got plenty of material."
With ninety-five people on the day shift and forty others working nights, the roads in Michigan's fourth most populous county will be well tended to this weekend, Roon says, so you can get to grandma's before that corn casserole and those green beans get cold (but consider slowing down, too, so we all get there in one piece).
"We're going to make sure we're ready when the storm comes," Roon said. "We're just asking motorists that, when you hit the rush this Thanksgiving, that you just put a little extra time in your travel."
