Jerold Kinney, second in charge at Randolph’s VTrans garage, was featured recently in a state-wide ad offering driving tips during bad weather. (Herald / Tim Calabro) Jerold Kinney’s 10-year-old daughter, Jaden, thinks it’s pretty exciting that her dad has been seen on TV.

Kinney, who lives in Randolph with his wife Cristalee, and Jaden (older daughter, Alahna, 20, is in college at UNH), works for the state road crew and is the senior transportation maintenance worker, second in charge at the state Agency of Transportation’s Randolph garage.

He and another area man, Paul Stratton, who is foreman at the state AOT’s South Royalton garage, are featured in a recent public service ad televised around the state about driving safely in winter weather.

“There are six of us sitting around a table in a garage after coming in from plowing snow, and we’re having a conversation about all the things we’ve observed,” Kinney explained. “I say, ‘In just two miles, I saw seven vehicles off the road!’ People just don’t realize that it takes a while for the salt to melt the snow and ice. It’s hard to maintain the roads in winter weather.”

Kinney has worked for the state AOT for six years, and before that, worked on the Randolph town road crew for a number of years, but this is his first time on television. 

“Scott Rogers, who is director of operations for the state AOT, said he needed ‘a couple of characters’ for the ad, so he volunteered Paul and me!” Kinney said with a laugh. “We’ve been friends for 25 years.”

Kinney noted that when the day came to shoot the ad at the District 6 office in Berlin, “It was actually 65 degrees and it took all day to do it. It was fun, but I’ll stick to plowing the interstate!”

The Kinney family does have dad’s moment of stardom saved for posterity, though.

“My wife got a Facebook message from a friend who had seen it on Channel 3 and she was able to get a recording of it,” he said.