Snow Day @ Lake of the Ozarks: Police chief plows roads

SUNRISE BEACH, Mo. (KY3) - Sunrise Beach Police Chief Scott Craig ended up helping to plow the roads in the city when the public works employee got stuck Thursday morning.

“The snowplow got around a lot nicer than my patrol car did,” said Sunrise Beach Police Chief Scott Craig.

He got behind the wheel of a different city vehicle today when the city was in a bind.

”I called our public works employee and asked him if he was on his way in what we were looking at with the city streets because we were starting to see a lot of people try to get out, and they were getting stuck on the city streets. He advised me that where he lived, they had not been plowed at all by the state or county and that he couldn’t get in,” said Chief Craig.

Chief Craig was comfortable with his ability to drive a snow plow.

”Prior to my career in law enforcement, I had some training when I worked with MoDOT on snow removal. In my teenage years, I also worked for a company that did snow removal. So I’m pretty comfortable with operating a plow truck,” said Chief Craig.

Usually, public works could get in to plow the roads.

“We have procedures set in place to guarantee that the Public Works employees can get into work with the plows and get the streets cleared,” said Chief Craig.

“We appreciate everyone’s patience. I don’t think anyone expected or was prepared for this,” said City Clerk Jeni Nelson.

Chief Craig says doing things like this is not uncommon for him or his department.

”Anytime there’s a need in our city, my department and I are more than willing to step up however we can, even if it’s outside the scope of law enforcement, to better serve our citizens and community.”

Roads were cleared by 2 p.m.

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