As a maintenance supervisor for the Missouri Department of Transportation, Roy Kempker lives and dies by the weather - which is why he has half a dozen forecasting apps on his smartphone.
"Snow fights and pot holes seem to go hand in hand," he said.
From a MoDOT maintenance shed in Mokane, Kempker oversees seven employees charged with maintaining the roads in south Callaway County. Together the group clears the roads of snow in winter and tackles pavement repair and mowing jobs in summer. The group also replaces decrepit culvert pipes, fills pot holes, cuts brush, brines the area's bridges and performs the other mundane tasks that keep rural routes free and clear for busy travelers.
Their "beat," so to speak, extends 41 miles along Missouri 94 from Jefferson City to Route PP in Montgomery County. The crew also covers Routes C and O.
This winter has been a tough one for the crew.
Kempker said it's not the big snow storms that frustrate his team. It's the little ones - with their seemingly endless patterns of drizzling, flurries and freezing - that eat up tons of materials and man hours.
"Little storms is what's getting to us," he said.
One component of Kempker's job is ordering the materials - salt, cinders, sand, beet juice, calcium chloride - his workers need to keep the roads in good condition. He noted beet juice is a relatively new material that helps salt brine work at lower temperatures, while lessening the corrosive properties of the salt.
Although he's worked for MoDOT for 18 years, Kempker is a relative newcomer to the Mokane team. After working in the Columbia area, he earned the Mokane job last October. "This is my first winter," he said, adding he hasn't yet experienced the area's almost-annual summer flooding caused by high water levels along the Missouri River.
Although Kempker grew up in Jefferson City, he lives in New Bloomfield today.
"I wanted to work in the county I live in," he said. "I'm driving these roads, too. I'm making things better for my neighbors."
Kempker has two sons: 22-year-old Casey Kempker and 11-year-old Richard Stoll.
He loves to take his kids hunting and fishing in the family's 18-foot bass boat.
"We go bow hunting and bow fishing all the time," Kempker said.