Bangor’s public works department is asking young Bangorians to help name its three new snow removal vehicles, and to design an image to be prominently displayed on those new vehicles once they get to the business of clearing out Bangor’s sidewalks this winter.
Bangor Public Works Director Aaron Huotari announced the competition earlier this week, which is open to students at any of Bangor’s public schools. Huotari said in a YouTube video that the department hopes to teach students about how the city keeps the streets and sidewalks clear during the winter, and have a little fun while doing it.
The vehicles include a trackless MT7, a municipal tractor that is the “workhorse” of the public works fleet; the Multihog CX7, another snow removal tractor; and the Wacker Neuson WL28, a newer, more maneuverable sidewalk plower outfitted with a snowblower.
Students will be first asked to submit a name for each vehicle via the city of Bangor website by Oct. 15. After that, the Public Works Department and the Bangor City Council will pick the winning names, to be announced on Oct. 24. Each Bangor school will then submit its own designs for each name by Nov. 17. The winning designs will be made into decals to be put on the vehicles, which will then visit each school with a winning name and design.
Many states and municipalities across the country have held snow plow-naming competitions, including in Minnesota, Ohio, South Dakota and Massachusetts. Minnesota’s names were particularly creative, including names like “Yer a Blizzard, Harry” and “Better Call Salt.”
In Maine, Bar Harbor held a plow-naming contest in 2021, choosing the names Angelina Snowlie, Colonel Sanders and Plowy McPlow Face for its vehicles. In 2022, the Maine Department of Transportation declined to name its snow plows, claiming that the department would have to shell out $100,000 or more for GPS tracking devices if it did so.
What would you name these three plows? The official city contest is only open to Bangor public school students, but for those grownups who also want to get creative and have a little fun, we welcome your unofficial submissions.
Click here to submit your names, or fill out the form below. If we get enough good ones we’ll do a follow-up post with the best suggestions.
