In Fort Kent, snowplow parade makes light of record snowfall

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FORT KENT – Watch out Macy’s, there’s a new parade in town.

Nearly 100 plow trucks, snowblowers, tractors, graders, sand trucks and even a precision snow shovel drill team participated in the first World’s Largest Snow Plow Parade here Saturday.

Northern Maine residents may be tired of plowing, shoveling and moving snow around, but they are not tired enough to miss out on a record-breaking parade marking the end of this year’s record-breaking snowfall.

“Look at all these people, they are all so excited and happy,” Darlene Kelly Dumond, local businesswoman and co-organizer of the event, said at the start. “Another crazy scheme cooked up in Fort Kent that worked.”

The idea was born out of having the snowiest winter on record by a group of Can Am Crown Sled Dog Race mushers gathered at the finish line in March. Dumond and fellow businesswoman Tenley Bennett of Eagle Lake took the idea to heart and ran with it.

“This has surpassed anything we had hoped for,” Dumond said Saturday at the Fort Kent courthouse parking lot as she directed a constant stream of arriving trucks and other snow-removal vehicles. “It’s taken on a life of its own.”

George Dumond, commander of the Fort Kent American Legion chapter, overheard Dumond and just grinned.

“Darlene was afraid no one would show,” he said. “Only Fort Kent could pull this off.”

More than 15 feet of snow fell on the region this winter, and northern Mainers were united in the battle to keep roads and driveways open.

When not outside plowing or shoveling, people were inside talking about plowing and shoveling. All that exertion and discussion can lead to some pretty imaginative ideas.

For one group of camp and homeowners along Sly Brook Road in Wallagrass and Eagle Lake, the bonds of shoveling inspired them to create their own organization – a precision snow shovel drill team.

Pat Lamereau, an Eagle Lake camp owner, is also a charter member of The Brotherly Society of Beer Swigging Big Snow Bank Shovelers.

Lamereau formed the snow shovel team together with a dozen fellow shoveling brothers and sisters.

With Lamereau calling cadence – which he continued long after the parade concluded – the group marched and shoveled their way along the route with a performance good enough to earn them the event’s first prize award for best entry.

“We came up with the idea for the group around Super Bowl Sunday,” member Stephen Gagne said. “When we heard about the parade, we figured we had to be in it.”

For some this year, the art of plowing evolved into royal inspiration.

Kim Paradis of Fort Kent, business owner and the self-titled Plow Queen, decked out her truck with her moniker, a giant crown, snowflakes and a placard reading, “Silly Boys, Plow Trucks are for Girls.”

Maybe it was the pink tape on the plow blade, or the royal wave Paradis issued as she drove along, but the judges gave her entry second place.

“I just wanted to celebrate the coming of spring,” Paradis said. “I spent 90 percent of my winter in my plow truck, [and] I hadn’t plowed in the past two weeks and kind of missed it.”

For more than a mile the parade lumbered along from the courthouse before ending at the other end of town at Bee Jay’s Tavern.

Small ATVs- and even a motorcycle – with plows attached wove their way among giant commercial snow removal machines.

Robbie Morin of Morin Construction, who holds one of the snow-removal contracts in Fort Kent, had all of his trucks decked out well enough for third place honors.

Towns from Allagash to Portage also sent representation, along with the state’s Department of Transportation.

“It was all that we’d hoped for and more,” Bennett said. “People really took the time to get involved, [and] I can’t wait for next year.”

In addition to creative entries, Bennett and Dumond were looking for the best four-word phrase to describe the winter of 2008.

It came compliments of Quigley’s Building Supply who summed it up with “Fun by the Ton.”

Other sentiments ranged from “We underestimated Mother Nature,” to “Will work for fuel” and the cryptic, “Made the police blotter.”

All along the route people cheered and more than a few looked a tad wistful.

“I got reports of lots of people who were kicking themselves for not being in the parade,” Bennett said.

Plans have already begun for the 2009 parade, and Dumond is ready to go.

“I walked out of Bee Jay’s yesterday and someone told me this is the craziest thing we had ever done,” she said. “Just wait until next year.”