Snow Saviors: North Bend neighbors spend days clearing streets the county snow plows won’t

If you live in the Wilderness Rim neighborhood of North Bend, you know living at 1,000 feet above sea level brings more snow. You also know – due to budget cuts – King County only plows the two main roads leading to the Rim, which is nice, but not exactly ideal when it comes to just getting out of the neighborhood.

This is when it helps to have great neighbors…. especially neighbors who have and love their toys like Alan LaBissoniere and Dave LaTourette.

During the recent snow storm, these two guys spent hours on their personal vehicles helping clear snow from Wilderness Rim streets and driveways so residents could access those two plowed main roads.

Wilderness Rim resident Kathy Hyland said Dave was out on his tractor for three days when he wasn’t at work – even servicing her own home. She said many grateful neighbors offered him money for the work, but Dave’s reply via social media was: “The way I figure it, we all have something that might help someone else down the road, and that’s how a neighborhood should work.”

Many know Alan from his local business (Frontier Pest) and his volunteer work with King County Search and Rescue where he runs the Regional Special Vehicles Unit and serves as volunteer Public Information Officer.

Alan loves those quads that he uses on SAR missions – and those vehicles also come home with him. So when the snow started coming down heavily on Sunday, Alan attached the snow plow blade and proceeded to ‘hit the roads.’

And he didn’t stop.

Alan said he put in about six hours on Sunday and then 11 hours on Monday after the snow stopped. In total it was three days of plowing adding up to about 22 hours.

And why you ask?  Like Dave, Alan said he likes to help his neighbors…. and it doesn’t hurt that he loves his ‘toys’ (i.e. those quads).

Alan was grateful for some gas money contributed by neighbors, saying he used about 15 gallons. But mostly he said he was just glad to help while he took a couple of days off work.

That quad did sustain some damage, but that won’t likely stop Alan from heading out again if another storms rolls through this winter.

Nice work guys! If anyone has a photo of Dave out plowing, send it our way so we can add it here.