News Photo by Julie Riddle Workers at Hincka Logging pose with owner Clarence Hincka, Eric Precord of the Michigan Department of Transportation, and Marty Zdybel of the Presque Isle County Road Commission near the business’s offices in Posen.

POSEN — Teamwork, community-mindedness, and a feller buncher made driving a little safer for area residents this spring as the Michigan Department of Transportation took another of many small steps in its Toward Zero Deaths national road safety initiative.

When MDOT looked for ways to improve the safety of area roads as efficiently as possible during the spring road maintenance season, Clarence Hincka stepped up to the plate. The 60-year owner of Hincka Logging in Posen, Hincka offered his staff of robust workers and their mighty machines to get the job done.

A partnership between MDOT, the Presque Isle County Road Commission, and Hincka Logging turned into a win for all when they teamed up to clear roadsides of hazardous vegetation in a fraction of the time it would have taken otherwise, saving the county money and drivers from potential trips to the auto body repair shop.

In some areas of wooded, rural northern Michigan, trees growing too close to the roads create unsafe driving situations, according to Eric Precord, transportation maintenance coordinator for MDOT’s north region.

In winter, trees near the road’s edge block sunlight, keeping it from working with the salt to melt ice. Trees too near the shoulder also become a hazard when vehicles leave the roadway, endangering the driver as well as causing damage to the vehicle.

Drivers are also more likely to not see a roadside deer until it’s too late when the woods hover near the road’s edge, Precord said. As many dented fenders can attest, deer-car altercations are all too common Up North, and measures to prevent them not only protect wildlife but also help prevent dangerous situations for drivers.

A year ago, when MDOT cleared brush away from a stretch of road south of Posen, evidence of multiple collisions with deer was easy to see.

“That whole stretch was just covered in car parts. There was headlights, bumper pieces …,” Precord remembered.

MDOT and the Presque Isle County Road Commission work as partners for projects such as clearing roadside vegetation. This year, for the first time, the organizations teamed up with Hincka Logging to get the work done.

Instead of MDOT and Presque Isle County tackling the project on their own — which, according to Precord, would have taken about a month at roughly $4,000 per day — they reached out to Hincka, who rented them a logging machine (which was operated by a Presque Isle County Road Commission employee) for $12,000, and agreed to do the work of hauling away the timber and chipping and transporting the brush and branches at a greatly reduced price.

The lumber, which in the past has simply been burned by MDOT, will be put to good use by Hincka Logging. The chips were donated to the Hillman power plant to be used as fuel.

“I get a service, they get a product, it works out for everybody,” Precord said.

Hincka wanted to help Gerald Smigelski and Marty Zdybel, both of the Presque Isle County Road Commission, because of a good working relationship he had with them in the past. Helping the community and people who have helped him was more important than earning a profit, he said.

“Marty asked me, and I said, ‘Since you’s are good to me, I’ll be good to you’s,'” Hincka said in his thick Polish accent. “That’s no money, as far as money. But we done it for Marty and Jerry.”

Powerful equipment enabled the county and Hincka’s workers to make short work of multiple projects, including the intersection of U.S.-23 North and M-65 north of Posen and a stretch of road north of Hoeft State Park on U.S.-23 North, finishing both projects in about a week. The workers used a feller buncher, a machine that can grasp multiple trees at the same time and saw through their bases in less than a second.

Hincka’s trucks hauled nearly 700 cubic yards of chips to the the power plant, a task that would have been impossible for the county and MDOT.

MDOT is looking at several similar projects this summer, and will call Hincka in for help when the trees are big enough to be worth their while, Precord said.

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693 or jriddle@thealpenanews.com.