For more than a decade, residents of Greater Des Moines looked to Bill Stowe, assistant manager for the city's public works and engineering department, for advice on driving in the city during winter storms. Stowe's comforting TV personna, combined with his long hair, made him an unusual local hero, with a Facebook fan page and a T-shirt designed by Raygun that showed his face and snowflakes and read "Let it Stowe." On Sept. 24, he took the helm of Des Moines Water Works, which provides drinking water to half a million people in the Des Moines area.
