CINCINNATI — Even with snow piled up nearly everywhere he looks, Dontonio Brown is on time.
It’s Monday morning, and Brown just caught a bus downtown before his shift at a Fairfax Walmart. The 21-year-old tells me he’s working there to pay for college, and he says he wouldn’t be able to do so without the bus.
“People need us,” said Bill Spraul, chief operations officer for Cincinnati Metro. “Especially in the snow.”
It’s something we noticed during our storm coverage this weekend. Because even as Hamilton County officials declared a level 3 emergency, buses continued to run. Spraul tells me they didn’t reduce operations, although there were delays, because not everyone gets to take a snow day.
“Metro always runs,” Spraul said. "And we’re very proud of that.”
WATCH: Take a ride with us
Spraul tells me there were a few minor crashes over the weekend, but he said they were caused by other drivers. I spoke to him at Government Square on Monday, where I saw quite a few people getting on and off the bus — even in temperatures well below freezing.
When Spraul and I step onto a bus, Orlando King greets us with a fist bump. He’s been a driver for 34 years. I ask him if he likes the snow, and he repeats my question. Then he laughs in my face.
“The snow is cold," King said.
King started his shift at 5:20 a.m., but tells me the actual driving hasn’t been that bad. Because even if it's cold, he likes what he's doing.
"We are one of the wheels that really make the community work,” King said. “And I enjoy that.”
