Debbie Yerks has been keeping your neighborhood safe for 18 winters and counting.

"Plowing snow is fun. It's hard work, but it's one of my favorite things to do here," she says.

Yerks works for the Ingham County Road Commission, filling potholes in the summer and plowing streets in the cold months. She let WILX come along for the ride Tuesday to see things from her perspective.

"As you see, we did the primaries early this morning. Everything is melting off nicely," she comments as we drive on Hamilton Road in Meridian Township.

But in the world of a snow plow, there are bigger challenges than just making sure streets are salted and smooth. Yerks says drivers are constantly getting in the way of the plow, whether it's parking on the streets or tailing plows from behind.

"We can't see them from behind. They're going to get hit," she says.

Ask Yerks what drivers can do to make things easier? She's quick with recommendations.

"Tthey can back off," she starts, "they can slow down. Don't pull out in front of us, give us room. They try to blow by us because they don't want to be the car behind the truck. Use common sense. Tthey think we can stop immediately. But when you have a load of salt, that's a lot of weight." She tells us oftentimes they are carting around five tons of salt.

She says her tips aren't just to keep the plows safe, but to keep us safe too.

"There's not a lot of reward by others, but we all go out there to make the roads safe for everyone."