62┃ Colorado Public Works Journal Pete Adler is APWA Colorado Chapter Delegate and can be reached at rockies325@gmail.com APWA INSIGHTS Pete Adler We are already more than halfway through 2023. It has been an amazing year. An unbelievable snow pack, one of the coldest winters along the Front Range in decades, continuous rain into June, and now the heat of summer. Isn’t that a reason to live in Colorado? To see all four seasons annually with the great beauty mother nature has blessed us with? I want to congratulate the Colorado Asphalt Paving Association (CAPA), who are celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. For those of you who have worked with CAPA on a multitude of issues, there is no greater resource for the asphalt industry than the staff at CAPA. Courses offered through CAPA and the Rocky Mountain Asphalt Education Center are invaluable for professionals, lab certification programs are a must for the industry, and the Rocky Mountain Asphalt Conference and Equipment Show annually in February is a must-attend for those working with asphalt. APWA is a proud CAPA partner in sponsoring scholarships to attend the NCAT School at Auburn University annually. It is a great program for those who attends, and CAPA now brings NCAT classes to Colorado which sellout. Congratulations again to CAPA! The 43rd annual Western Snow and Ice Conference and the 37th National Snow Roadeo will be held in Loveland September 28-30. I have the honor of acting as the Conference Chair this year. As we have for annually since 2014 (except 2020), the event is being held at the Embassy Suites in Loveland and The Ranch at the Larimer County Fairgrounds next to the conference center. There is such a long, prestigious history to this event. The first Western Snow and Ice Conference I attended was at Island Grove Park in Greeley in October 1994. I have been lucky enough to be associated with putting the conference together since 2010, and work with a great team in putting this event together. There is a tremendous amount of effort put forth by our 16-member conference committee. In addition, Bill Nuanes leads the Roadeo Committee of 18 in designing the roadeo courses for plow trucks, loaders, graders and skidsteers, developing diagnosis items as part of the roadeo, and writing the written exam that is also required. How big is the event? Registration in 2022 was 1,314, which shattered previous records. How big is the Western Snow and Ice Conference? After the Western Snow and Ice Conference, the next largest conference or event hosted by one of the other 61 APWA chapters attracted around 700 attendees. The current APWA President, who attended the 2022 conference, was amazed at the variety of equipment, educational sessions and comradery shown by the attendees. This year’s keynote speaker will be Karl Mecklenburg, one of the greatest Denver Broncos linebackers ever. Bring your items for Karl to sign afterwards (except Raiders gear, of course). I did want to salute a long-time successful competitor at the National Snow Roadeo. Spencer Esch, who currently works for the US Bureau of Reclamation out of Montrose, won the loader and grader competitions in 2022. Winning at the National Snow Roadeo is nothing new to Spencer. Last year, Spencer won his sixth title on the grader, winning his first title in 2022. His win in the loader was also his sixth title on that piece of equipment, winning his first title in this event in 2008. Spence also won a team plow event in 2007. That is a total of 13 titles! Spencer won the 2018 state backhoe championship sponsored by APWA. With each victory, Spencer has received a custom belt buckle for each competition. He has also placed second or third in nine different events, for a total of 22 winning buckles. Crew
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