The following appeared in The Rock County Star on October 11, 1929.
House Snow Plows Here
Minnesota Highway Department to Erect Building in Luverne to House two Snow Plows
Plans to erect a building here, to house two of the Minnesota Highway Department’s new motor truck snow plows, were made known yesterday by H. E. Chard, district engineer of the department and J. F. O’Meara, division maintenance superintend-dent, both of whom were here to negotiate for a site, just south of the Omaha lines, on the tile factory spur, near the Petersen sand pit. Construction of a fifty by thirty foot shed is to be started at once and made ready to accommodate the new equipment this fall, according to District Engineer Chard.
According to Mr. Chard, the department has purchased eight new motor trucks, with from eighty to one hundred fifteen horsepower motors, for use in Southwestern Minnesota, and Pipestone and Luverne are among the towns where the equipment will be stationed. The new trucks constitute dual-purpose equipment adopted by the highway department as the solution of the snow removal problem. The trucks are adequate in power and speed to keep a good area of the highways free from snow and during the other seasons of the year when they are not needed for snow removal they will be utilized for maintenance purposes, each outfit eliminating a number of the old horse patrols.
Residents of the community can expect from this additional equipment, located right here in the community, winter travel facilities that have never been afforded in previous winters. Not only is the new road cleaning apparatus much more powerful and efficient than that used in previous winters but heretofore all of the equipment has been located farther up toward the cities and the extreme southwestern part of the state often laid blockaded for days before the equipment could reach this section.
Following completion of their business here, Mr. Chard went to Pipestone and to Ortonville, from which points he planned to return to Saint Paul, and Superintendent O’Meara returned to Windom.
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