The Van Wert County garage (pictured to the right) won the district team award, which is given to the garage that finished with the top two combined scores in both the truck and loader competition.

Pictured with the Crestview plow and representing the Van Wert garage are (from left) Don Swander, Cory Counts, Ron Leffel, B.J. Baxter, Brett Sheets, Kyle Rode, Mark Zielke, Chris Lobsiger, Geoffrey Miller and Brad Trentman.

Goyings, Neff, Miles and Lobsiger will advance to the statewide Director’s Cup event, which will be held in Columbus in late August.

The roadeo is a friendly competition that pits equipment operators against one another to test their skill in maneuvering equipment through a series of obstacles intended to mimic situations they encounter on the job. Before running the course, participants are required to find deliberate mechanical bugs during a pre-trip equipment inspection.

The competition also included a test of the rules and laws pertaining to holders of a commercial driver’s license (CDL). All highway technicians at ODOT are required to retain a CDL.

“The roadeo is an important tradition for our professional drivers. It allows them the opportunity to exercise practical skills and requires a fair amount of precision,” said Chris Hughes, deputy director of ODOT District 1.

The plows decorated as part of the Paint the Plow contest were displayed during the roadeo. Paint the Plow is an annual competition for which area high school and vocational school students paint an ODOT plow blade with their message of school spirit, safety, patriotism or Ohio pride. There were 23 schools from ODOT District 1’s eight-county region in the contest this year – a record number of participants.

County garage employees chose a favorite entry from their respective counties to go forward to the final round of judging for the overall ODOT choice award. The overall ODOT choice award winner was determined by employee vote at the roadeo.

Additionally, voting for a people’s choice award is underway on ODOT District 1’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ODOTDistrict1, where photos of all 23 plows are posted. Each like, comment or share on a plow’s picture through noon Monday, May 6, counts as a vote towards the people’s choice award.

Both the ODOT choice and people’s choice award winners will be announced early next week, after social media voting concludes.

District 1 encompasses Allen, Defiance, Hancock, Hardin, Paulding, Putnam, Van Wert and Wyandot counties.

The Ohio Department of Transportation maintains the state's largest man-made asset – the transportation system. ODOT's mission is to provide the safe and easy movement of people and goods from place to place. As a $2.8 billion per year enterprise, ODOT invests the bulk of its resources in system preservation through maintenance, construction and snow and ice operations.