Laurel man wins Highway Skills and Safety "Roadeo"

Jul. 21—A London man was a top scorer in the annual competition for state highway workers.

Alvin Stamper took the first place spot in the "Tractor with Mower" category among the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's "Roadeo" competitions in late June. He and other winners will now advance to represent Kentucky in the Southeastern Regional Equipment Operator's Safety and Training Conference in Beckley, West Virginia.

As a three-year employee of the state highway division, Stamper said he entered the contest because it "was something different.

"They had you backing and parking semi-trucks and trailers, on a tractor with a mower, driving a tandem truck and single-axle trucks," Stamper said. "You have to go around cones and pull up to a line without going over it, back up to a line without going over it."

Stamper's win was in a category with which he is well versed — the Tractor with Mower competition.

"I grew up driving a tractor," he said. "It wasn't anything new to me."

Stamper helped his grandfather in the tobacco fields since he was a child. In fact, he holds the title for the fastest time in chopping and putting tobacco on sticks — having taken the top spot for 15 consecutive years. In 2018, a sign near the Flea Land Flea Market on KY 229 boasted of his achievements.

The decline of the tobacco industry, however, eliminated that livelihood — and the competitions. But on his new career, Stamper still operates the familiar tractor — along with other equipment necessary for his job.

"We do road maintenance — we fix roads, put down blacktop, push snow in the winter — whatever they need done," he said.

A native Laurel Countian, Stamper and his wife Amanda have been married for 20 years and have three children.

The competition results were announced on Friday by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet. The State Equipment Operators Safety and Training Conference, more commonly called the Equipment Roadeo pits heavy equipment operators from 12 Department of Highways branches in a skills contest. Participants qualified for the state Roadeo at the Kentucky Horse Park by finishing either first or second in district-level competitions that feature six obstacle course exercises. The top two finishers in each event at the state Roadeo now advance to the regional competition hosted by the West Virginia Department of Transportation.

Operators competed in six courses testing accuracy, agility and speed while operating heavy equipment that included graders, backhoes, single- and tandem-axle dump trucks, tractors with mowers and tractor trucks with lowboy trailers. During the backhoe competition, operators pick up five golf balls, one at a time, from a 4-by-8-foot box of sand with a spoon-like attachment on the backhoe bucket and drop them in narrow cylinders with openings as small as three inches.

Besides the skills competition, participants received training about fire suppression systems, two-way communications equipment, truck braking systems and truck tire maintenance and safety.

"Our crews operate heavy equipment that requires precision skills to perform critical maintenance activities, like plowing snow or hauling materials," said KYTC Secretary Jim Gray. "This statewide event, which began in 2006, is an important safety training exercise to properly handle potentially hazardous equipment and machinery, and it's an impressive showcase of our front-line crews' mastery of the trade."

A team from Department of Highways District 9, in Flemingsburg, were the overall Roadeo champions with 253 points. The District 10 team, from Jackson, was second with 187 points. The team from District 6, Covington, finished third with 173 points.