CLEVELAND (WJW) – You might be loving some beautiful fall weather, but already the FOX 8
I-Team has found concerns about plowing your streets when it snows.
We’ve seen the problem before, so we investigated.
Once again, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) scrambling to hire enough plow drivers for the winter.
ODOT points out despite the nice weather now, road crews must be ready for the snow and ice soon.
Spokesperson Amanda McFarland said, “It’s not uncommon for it to snow on Halloween.”
We checked with ODOT since we’ve seen a struggle in recent years to hire enough plow drivers.
We found right now, just in this part of the state, ODOT has 130 openings.
ODOT provided this update:
In District 3: Ashland, Crawford, Erie, Huron, Lorain, Medina, Richland, and Wayne
- Looking for 68 seasonals, currently have 43.
District 4: Ashtabula, Mahoning, Portage, Stark, Summit, and Trumbull
- Looking to hire 100, currently have 30.
District 11: Belmont, Carroll, Columbiana, Harrison, Holmes, Jefferson, and Tuscarawas
- Looking to hire 28, currently have 16.
District 12: Cuyahoga, Geauga, and Lake
- Looking for 30, currently have 5.
McFarland added, “A lot of people are having trouble across our nation. This is just a seasonal employment, and maybe there’s another company that is offering full time.”
We also found the City of Cleveland hiring about 115 plow drivers.
The city says, “We seem to be in good shape.” In recent weeks, the I-Team has seen some city plow drivers in training at the Muni Lot.
ODOT still filling lots of jobs, but confident that will get done before the snow flies. ODOT plow drivers earn just under $20 an hour.
Amanda McFarland also said, “We have a lot of hiring events coming up, here, in October to put the word out even more about what we’re looking for.”
Check out ODOT plow driver jobs here.
