(Michael Flood) It’s summertime. Let the adventures begin, but let's remember safety first. Don't let distracted driving ruin your summer. Parents, your kids are watching, so put the phone down. That message can wait until you arrive. Be aware and alert for other drivers, work zones, and roadside workers. Let's make this summer one for the books by cutting out distracted driving.

Stay updated on travel conditions this summer by downloading the MDOT traffic mobile app and visiting MDOTtraffic.com.

[Music and Intro]

(Drew Hall) MDOT presents The Extra Mile Podcast

(Paul Katool) Welcome in to another edition of the Extra Mile Podcast presented by the Mississippi Department of Transportation. I'm Paul Katool, and as always, I'm joined by my co-host Will Craft, and Will, the Legislative Session is over. We are on the road. We're on the Mississippi Gulf Coast at the State Roadeo.
That's R-O-A-D-E-O. We'll talk about that momentarily, but first, let's introduce our esteemed guest. This is MDOT State Maintenance Engineer, Heath Patterson. Heath, thanks for having us.

(Heath Patterson) Thanks for having me.

(Paul) Absolutely. We'll start off real quick. Uh, easy stuff. Tell us a little bit about yourself. What do you do at the Mississippi Department of Transportation?

(Heath) Sure. Well, my official title is the State Maintenance Engineer, but, um, I wear a lot of different hats. Coordinating this event is one of those things. And, um, I've been called a lot worse than esteemed. So, thank you.

(Paul) There we go.

(Will Craft) Yeah, man. Glad to be here. Glad to have you here. I don't know if you guys are all, hopefully a lot of you are listening, but also watching on the podcast on YouTube. We got a lot of activity going on behind us, some heavy equipment. Um, well, first off, where are we? We're at the coast, uh, Mississippi Gulf Coast Coliseum, right?

(Heath) That's right.

(Will) The back lots here. I didn't even know that there was this much space back here. Uh,

(Heath) Google maps is a great thing to find an area –

(Will) Fair enough

(Heath) to put on a big event.

(Will) Touché.

(Heath) So, yeah, we found this in 2019. We put on a regional event here in 2019, which included a lot of other states.

(Will) Well, talking about that. So, how did this all come to be? I mean, this wasn't going on for 40 years. This is relatively new, right?

(Heath) It's been, uh, half that actually, about a little over 20 years.

(Will) OK.

(Heath) So, we adopted this program of, of training and competition for equipment operators from Arkansas DOT as it were, uh, back in the, uh, 1990s. Uh, but then in 2003, we were doing the same program that they were and decided, well, well, let's see who's better. You know, this is Southeast. We take competition pretty seriously. Let's see who's better. And in 2003, we competed against Arkansas, and that was the first regional Roadeo event.

(Will) So we won them all, right?

(Heath) What's that? We've won them all since. No, we haven't. Since then, it has grown to 13 states now, I believe. 12 maybe. Texas may be coming on next year. Florida, this will be their first year coming in. North Carolina's the host. But for this event, you know, we start in the districts. All of our six districts around the state. We have a, we have this competition in the top two, the top two competitors from each event, each of our seven events now go on to this state event.

(Will) OK.

(Heath) And then the top two from this event will go on to North Carolina this year to compete against all the other DOTs in the Southeast.

(Will) North Carolina? Wow.

(Paul) The best of the best.

(Will) Yeah, that's later on this year?

(Heath) That is in, uh, late September in Raleigh, North Carolina, yeah.

(Will) The podcast will have to make a road trip to North Carolina.

(Heath) Oh yeah. Come on, y'all. Come on.

(Will) See the Tarheels. Get an episode in.

(Paul) So, uh, yeah, so this is a competition. Kind of break down what different events are going on today here.

(Heath) Yeah, so we have a, we have a trucking event. So, we have one truck course where a single or a tandem or a, what we call a low boy with a long trailer that heavy, hauls heavy equipment, those all compete on a single course where they will do a serpentine maneuver. They will do an alley dock maneuver to simulate backing up to unload. A parallel park maneuver. A straight line where they put all their right-side tires through a narrow gap and have can't knock off these tennis balls. And then of course, how close can you get to a stop line?
And then we have a lot of other specialty equipment, I call it. Our motor grader, where he's got a big blade for blading, you know, gravel roads and shoulders. And they knock off tennis balls off of stands without knocking the stand over. Uh, of course behind us, I guess you can see the tractor with the bush hog. As well as the, uh, the backhoe event, which is a fan favorite. You pick up the tennis balls. Uh, and then this year, yeah, we have a new event called this with the skid steer. A lot of people know them as Bobcat. Uh, where you will, there's an arm off the front of it and you got to pick up cones and move them over to another area.
That's a new event across the whole region. So, we'll be competing in that for the first time this year in Raleigh.

(Will) It's awesome. Why do we do this? Well, I mean, I know there's lots of good reasons, but, well, tell us some of them.

(Heath) Absolutely. Well. Honestly, you know, the, the, the fellowship, the networking, all that, that's all great. That's a, that's kind of a latent purpose of this, but it's a, it's a training event.

(Will) Sure.

(Heath) In the districts, when we hold those events, everybody participates. You're trying to hone your skills because you're working next to your coworkers. You're working next to the traveling public in confined spaces, typically on a shoulder. The better we can operate our equipment, the better we all are, the safer we all are. So. Uh, that is the main purpose of this.

(Will) Sure.

(Heath) The rest of it, uh, is just fun.

(Will) It looks fun. I mean, I'm trying to get out here on a piece of equipment at some point.

(Heath) Abso-, well, we've, no, we've, I'm, I’m not sure we're covered for that.

(Will) Alright, well, I tried, folks.

(Paul) Yeah, there you go.

(Will) Um, and, and nothing else to say, or the least to say, I guess, whatever phrase is appropriate there, nothing like competition to get a little better at what you're doing.

(Heath) Absolutely. That just, that just makes you try a little bit harder. These guys, I could see it in their eyes this morning. They were a little nervous. Yesterday, we get out here and let them get familiar, practice. Uh, some of these guys haven't been on this particular piece of equipment, you know, they're traveling in here from all over the state. So, um, nope, we're hoping the weather holds out for us. And, um,

(Will) Yeah.

(Heath) And we'll see who's the best. Well, when it, uh, when it all finishes up today.

(Will) It's a touch warm out here at the moment.

(Heath) Just a little hot.

(Paul) Just a tad.

(Will) But we are expecting a monsoon.

(Heath) I am glistening, just a little bit, as it were.

(Paul) Hey, this is impressive to see. I think my favorite event is the one where they pick up the golf ball,

(Heath) Yes.

(Paul) And drop it in the cylinder. That's crazy. I mean, it takes a lot of skill to do something like that. What's your, uh, what's your favorite event?

(Heath) I mean, that's gotta be one of my favorites. Um, I think that the, uh, the new skid steer event, it's one that we all came together collectively this year and have really honed the rules to that. It started off, it didn't seem like a very safe event, but, but collectively, well, all, all states came together this year.
So, so that one's kind of near and dear, uh, cause I sort of helped lead that, that sort of group discussion and editing what that event was going to become as a region. So that's our newest event. And, um, so that'd be, probably be my favorite one.

(Will) How about, uh, maybe the most competitive event?

(Heath) Uh, most competitive. I tell you what the back-, the backhoe as well as the motor grader, both of those, if you get a perfect score, it comes down to your time.

(Paul) OK.

(Heath) So those are special events in that those guys are not only surgical with how they're operating, they're also really lightning fast.

(Will) So you're, I mean, it sounds like you're having a lot of perfect scores.

(Heath) We will have, we will have many perfect scores. You know, some guys are going to drop a ball here and there, and they'll be out of the running cause it'll come down to all the guys that have perfect scores

(Will) Wow!

(Heath) and how fast they did it.

(Will) That's pretty tough.

(Heath) Yeah.

(Paul) Impressive

(Heath) And, uh, man, I tell you what, there was some fast times in the district, so we're expecting some fast ones today.

(Will) I bet so.

(Paul)There's some skilled equipment operators out here today.

(Heath) Best of the best.

(Paul) We post it on social media all the time, with the state, uh, the Roadeos throughout the, the spring. Go check some of that out. Okay, so let's talk some specific people. There are some superstars out here. Any shout outs you want to give?

(Heath) I will, uh, well, you're going to get me in trouble. Um, but there is one gentleman that on the, uh, backhoe event, he's been doing it for, since we started, probably 20 years, he's probably been with MDOT. And even at the regional level, he's known. You know, it's the “Beat Thomas Goode Event.”

(Will) That's right.

(Paul) I know that name. I remember that one.

(Heath) He's out of Batesville. I think he had a, he had 19.42 seconds at his district event. That's 19 seconds. It is lightning fast. And so we'll see how he does today.

(Paul) How do you get that good at something?

(Heath) What's that? Practice, practice, practice, you know, and if you're, you know, he's now, uh, you know, he started out as an operator. He's now been with MDOT long enough. He's now a supervisor, you know, so he has to actually go back and, and practice and, and, uh, you know, hone his skills back, which were naturally honed through just, you know, everyday operation, so.

(Will) You mentioned this earlier, workplace safety, talking about how, you know, this is just another cog or another tool in our repertoire of increasing awareness and how to do that. You had a little spiel about workplace safety for us.

(Heath) Yeah. So, um, we wanted guys to be comfortable today. You'll see, you'll see guys in, in, in our high visibility vests out here today. Um, all of our judges have to be in that high visibility wear because they're the ones in and around equipment. Um, yesterday before we got started, we talk about course safety, but we talk about general safety. We have all of our safety officers from around the state. They are judges in this event.

(Will) Okay. Um, so they're getting a little training too.

(Heath) They, they are. And they're also, uh, I've got, you know, six sets of eyeballs that are out here making sure that this is safe, but also, you know, uh, keeping folks safe from the weather. Uh, we, we –

(Will) Sure.

(Heath) We have, we had a, our safety presentation yesterday morning before anybody stepped out on this court, this course, and started doing anything.
So it's, um, that's what we do starting every day at work. We get together, we huddle, we have a safety huddle daily. And then we have much larger, more in-depth meetings, usually on a weekly basis.

(Paul) There you go.

(Will) Love that, man. Want everybody to go home.

(Paul) No doubt.

(Heath) Absolutely. That's the whole point.

(Paul) So our guys take their safety, uh, you know, very seriously, but also the public needs to do that too when these guys are out on the road working, right?

(Heath) Can't, we can't say that enough. I know you guys push out a lot of messaging. As far as slowing down in work zones. I would like to say it directly to whichever camera, please, um, you know, these, this is their office. This is where they work every day. I know I get in a hurry when I get in a car as well, but we would ask everybody to please slow down in work zones, whether that be contractors working for us, but for me, more importantly, when our folks are out there.

(Will) Absolutely.

(Paul) And drop the phone, please.

(Heath) Yes.

(Paul) Put the cell phone down.

(Heath) That's, we, I, I saw some really, uh, unsettling numbers about, um, about distracted driving, particularly in our state. It's one of the worst, and that was very surprising. I don't know if y'all seen those numbers recently.

(Will) I haven't.

(Heath) It's not, it's not good.

(Will) It's just very convenient.

(Heath) It is.

(Will) You know, you can grab the phone, you can play with the radio.

(Heath) Yeah.

(Will) Um, and I think the longer you're behind the wheel driving, the years go on, you get more comfortable.

(Heath) Yeah.

(Will) You know, I'm probably more likely to grab that phone these days than I was –

(Heath) Yeah.

(Will) right after I got my license, but.

(Heath) I'm not saying we need new laws. I'm not, I'm just, we should be self-policing that.

(Will) Sure.

(Heath) Please pay attention to where you're going.

(Will) I think we're all on the same page there for sure.

(Heath) Absolutely, absolutely.

(Will) You know, when you come to MDOT, we love what we do, the work we do, but, uh, some of it can be very dangerous, sure.

(Heath) Absolutely.

(Will) But, you know, to the degree we can, we want everybody to get home safe and go back to their families.

(Heath) That is the goal.

(Will) Um, well Heath, we're going to wrap this thing up with a couple of fun questions we like to ask all of our guests. Uh, as you might know, we are a music and food loving group.

(Heath) Hey, I'm right there with you. Right there with you.

(Will) Down in Public Affairs. How about a, uh, a new place to eat? Have you been anywhere? You got a go-to in Jackson or have you been to some new spots?

(Heath) A go-to? I live, uh, I live right there in Belhaven. So I'm kind of partial to the, our town center establishments, our newer places. Elvie's, uh, Manship is, um.

(Will) Oh yeah.

(Heath) A friend of mine has Manship and then, um, Polito Osteria right there, um, great places to eat.

(Will) What about down here? What about down here on the coast?

(Heath) Down here, man, I tell you what. I, when I used to come down here, uh, for, for, for LPA meetings, I would go, we would go eat at Le Bakery over in Biloxi.

(Will) Okay, I don't know about that one.

(Heath) It is a Vietnamese bakery, and they make the best banh mi sandwiches over there.

(Will) All right.

(Heath) I'm thinking about going there for lunch today on my way back.

(Will) We've had several, uh.

(Heath) Le Bakery, that's my, that's my coast place.

(Will) Add it to the list, baby.

(Heath) Yeah.

(Will) We've had several recommendations for Bozo's.

(Heath) Oh, I don't know Bozo's.

(Will) We're gonna have to go check that one out, too. We got a couple stops for lunch today.

(Heath) I know some bozos, I just don't know the place. Yeah.

(Paul) That’s wild.

(Heath) Yeah. Good deal.

(Paul) Some good choices right there. Uh, nothing like little Belhaven Town Center eats.

(Heath) Yeah.

(Paul) Well, Will teed us up, big music people in the Public Affairs division.

(Heath) Yeah.

(Paul) I've seen you at plenty of shows over by Jackson. So, talk about some of your, maybe your favorite concert or concerts.

(Heath) Gosh, concert or concerts. That is a, that is a tough one. I think I had, I would say most recently, I guess I went, I went down to Jazz Fest, uh, this year, for the first time in about eight or nine years, so I had a great time down there, but my friends over at, uh, Cathead Distillery, the Cathead Jam this year. I guess you can't pinpoint one different concert, Goose, Flaming Lips. It was all, it was all great.

(Will) It was a great event.

(Heath) Yeah, it was a great event. So, I'm looking forward to this year.

(Will) Very nice.

(Paul) Yeah, definitely Goose. Going to see my sixth Goose show this year, later this year.

(Heath) Uh-oh, we got a roadie.

(Paul) In a little while, so we're going for it. Heath, thank you so much for –

(Heath) Absolutely.

(Paul) having us down to the event today and thank you for everything you do for the state.

(Heath) Yeah Let's go get into some A/C soon.

(Paul) Absolutely. All right. All right. We'll wrap things up right there. Thank you to our listeners, our viewers for tuning into the Extra Mile Podcast. You can watch and listen to episodes by visiting GoMDOT.com/TheExtraMile. Remember to follow us on social media. @MississippiDOT is the handle. And we want to thank our producer/editor, Drew Hall. We also brought David Kenney along with us today to help with the setup. Billy Bob Sekul. Thank you for all that you guys do. And remember to drive smart out there on Mississippi Highways.

(Will) Thank you for subscribing to The Extra Mile podcast. Help us out by leaving a review and a five-star rating wherever you download the show. After leaving a review, slide on into our DMs over on social media @MississippiDOT and let us know. As a thank you, we have compiled a Google Map list of all of our guests’ favorite spots to eat on Mississippi Highways. It is our gift to you. Seriously, you guys are the best. We could not do the show without you, and we greatly appreciate the support. Remember, drive smart out there on Mississippi Highways.

[Outro Music]