Winter seems to be back in Nebraska today! It’s been a busy start to 2025 for your LTAP team. Today, I just wanted to make a suggestion for you and your team for NEXT winter! I thought the recent concrete and asphalt annual conferences provided really useful information for local agencies, among others, who build and manage pavement. Both conferences always give us valuable access to State and Federal agency people who provide oversight and funding opportunities for roads. Those folks are always open to our questions and are generally present throughout the conferences. Running into them at breaktime or at lunch can give you a great opportunity to meet, ask questions, and share your thoughts. For me, hearing about upcoming projects, current markets, supply chains for building materials, workforce development topics, research activities, and ways to improve pavement performance are so beneficial. Also, anytime you can hear from the experts in their fields is time well spent. Folks like Peter Taylor from the Concrete Pavement Technology Center, Drs. Morcous, Hu, and Teixeira, from UNL, as well as Rea, Park, Dearmont, Jaber, Starr, Keller, Syslo, Kramer, Wilson, and Johnson from NDOT. Not to mention the dozens of material suppliers, contractors, equipment experts, consultants and vendors that are happy to share their knowledge. Please keep these conferences in mind for 2026!