Letter to the Editor
To the Editor:
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT), whose trucks and employees remove the snow from the state’s highways, has released this year’s contenders in the “Name The Snowplow” contest.
Among the names nominated is “Brrrtha.” That’s good. I commend the nominator. But, perhaps it could be enhanced to “Brrrtha-Chewitt” to fully describe the function of its snow-moving mission.
The problem might be that it would take the entire side of the snowplow to explain to the majority of the people in the Twin Cities the relevancy of “Brrrtha-Chewitt.”
There’s another angle to this situation. Back in the 1950s, my Sunday School teacher at Bertha Congregational Church, Ruth Bottemiller, told me she thought the name of our town should be changed from “Bertha” to a title with more impact if it was to progress. Not certain whether her proposal ever saw the light-of-day publicly although I suspect she, at least, discussed it with the mayor, her husband,Walter K. (Butch) Bottimiller, the Ford dealer.
It might be too late now to change the name (actually Brrrtha might be an improvement particularly if “Brrrtha” wins the snowplow-naming contest) but maybe the city council could explore the possibility. Either Brrrtha or maybe Palm Springs.
Onward and upward.
Roger Bailey
Hudson, Wisconsin
