May 20 - 26, 2007

PDF: NPWW WA Chapter 2007 - Clark County

The City of Carrollton celebrated National Public Works Week with a multi-week series of events hosted by the Public Works Department. On May 15th at the City Council Meeting, the Mayor Pro Tem presented a Proclamation promoting the 2007 theme, "Public Works: Moving Life Forward." During this same session, the Department announced the winners of the poster contest and presented awards to three 3rd grade students supported by their teachers and parents.

Wednesday, May 23 (11:00 - 3:00) - The Department hosted an open house and equipment rodeo at Standridge Stadium coordinated with the Carrollton-Farmers Branch Independent School District. There were seven competitive events as well as multiple information booths from Public Works and other City Departments ranging from water conservation, environmental services, fire prevention and parks and recreation.

Thursday, May 24 (11:00 - 3:00) - The Department hosted an Employee Appreciation; a picnic at McInish Park followed by various athletic events for fun and recreation including soccer, softball, horseshoes and others.

We held our first open house in 2006, and invited elected officials, the general public, and school children. We had over 100 people in attendance. We provided tours of the Household Chemical Waste Collection facility, Fleet Management, and Transportation. We had several displays including posters showing various projects, a work zone safety display, demonstrations of how we make road signs, and a hands-on demonstration of an Enviroscape model that demonstrates sources of water pollution. We had several different types of equipment set up in the parking lot where visitors could climb aboard, and ask drivers what the equipment is used for.

We provided a "covered wagon" ride around the transportation yard where visitors learned about recycled road materials, saw the salt/sand building, and had a first-hand view of many of the things public works professionals are responsible for. We also had GIS displays, and two of our CAD technicians provided live demonstrations of the work they do. We had activity books for the children, and gave out goodie bags with pencils and rulers made from recyclable materials, brochures, and county maps. Every visitor was given a safety vest to wear, just like the vests we give our Adopt-A-Road volunteers. It was a great first Public Works Day, and we're looking forward to our open house this May.

Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs, on behalf of City Council, presented the 2007 National Public Works Week proclamation to Deputy City Manager Ken Reedy during the May 8, 2007 Council Meeting. Ken Reedy manages the Public Works Group in Glendale and proudly accepted the proclamation on behalf of the more than 450 Public Works employees. The Public Works Group is comprised of the Environmental Resources, Field Operations, and Utilities Departments.

Mr Reedy took a moment to thank all of the former Public Works employees on "whose shoulders we stand in Public Works." Mr Reedy then thanked all of the current Public Works employees for the wonderful job they do every day.

A video of the proclamation reading ceremony can be viewed at:
Video of proclamation

In addition to the proclamation, Glendale residents were made aware of National Public Works Week during a television program produced by Glendale 11, the city's local government access station. The show featured a story on the city's Right-of-Way (ROW) staff hard at work in the community trimming trees in preparation for the summer growth season. The ROW department is responsible for maintaining 20 million square feet of developed and undeveloped right-of-way in the city, which includes over 13,000 trees that get trimmed twice a year.

The story was specifically designed to promote National Public Works Week throughout the Glendale community, and did so by drawing a clear connection between the nationally celebrated event and services provided by the Public Works Group.

- Winners Announced during National Public Works Week - Thematic Design-A-Sign Contest for "Recycling is Fun."

The third annual Design-A-Sign contest nets four lucky winners out of 53 hopeful applicants. Top honors were recently awarded at the May 22, 2007 Glendale City Council meeting during National Public Works Week. The city's Sanitation Division sponsored the contest for children between the ages of six and nine. The four talented winners each received recognition and a plaque, and their artwork will be displayed on the side of a City of Glendale Recycling truck for the duration of one year. All children who entered the contest received a certificate of recognition.

Yet another successful Open House for the City of Keizer Public Works Department in kicking off National Public Works Week on Monday by hosting thier annual open house at their City Public Works Shop with the theme of "Focused on our Community 24/7". What a beautiful day with record high temps in the Northwest so we opened up a fire hydrant demo to let the children play in the water!

The event took place in conjunction with the Fire Districts National EMS Week at their fire station which is located adjacent to the Public Works Shop. The turnout was amazing with well over 600 visitors including children from all age groups. The Open House was targeted at the whole community for some public outreaching on educational topics and awareness of our infrastructure and how it works.

We hosted a no cost raffle with tons of donated prizes from local merchants, an educational water booth, Parks and Recreation booth, Stormwater and catch basin demos, backflow device information exhibit, Groundwater display, Utility locate information booth and outside had live tapping demos, a new hydrant demo and use of one of our Franchise Utility companies hot dog wagon to give out free hot dogs. There were many more things going on and a lot of informational literature to take home.

PDF: NPWW WA Chapter 2007 - Kitsap County

On May 23, 2007, the City of Loveland's Public Works department hosted our 4th Annual Public Works Day celebration. We invited all elementary school children from Loveland and transported them in for our celebration. Approximately 2,000 children and adults attended. Our festivities included informational booths for each of our 12 divisions; an equipment/truck show; lunch; snacks (cotton candy, popcorn and snow cones); music, inflatable maze, dunk tank and balloon artists. Our Traffic and Project Engineering divisions taught the children about round-abouts and how to safely maneuver through them. Our Stormwater group exposed the children to the 100 year flood shower experience and taught about the importance of keeping our stormdrains clean. Our Stormwater mascot H2O Jo made an appearance. Solid Waste employees and Fillip A. Can (recycling mascot) taught the kids about recycling opportunities. Remote controlled airplanes were on site - as was a full size helicpoter; all part of our Airport's educational booth. Our Transit division gave tours through a city bus and handed out tickets for a free ride. We created activity books and handed them out to each child. A local printer also donated 5,000 custom trading cards for each of our 12 divisions. Overall the event was a huge success; and our group looks forward to this every year!

In addition to all of this we also sponsor a coloring contest for grades K-2, a drawing contest for grades 3-5, a banner contest for Middle Schools and a Photography contest for High School students. These are always a huge hit with the kids. Winners from Elementary Schools received insulated lunch bags containing a water bottle, pen and stickers. Banners painted by the local Middle School students are hung throughout the city during Public Works Week; the winning classroom received $100 to be used for a pizza party. The winning High School student received $1000 for the purchase of new photography equipment.

As a thank you to the employees, we also hosted an Employee (family) BBQ at one of our area lakes. In addition to the food, employees took their boats out on the lake and gave rides to fellow employees. Children got wet playing with water guns and squish balls.

To help offset the expenses, vendors help sponsor the event. Half of all money collected was donated to our local foodbank.

Attendence: 2000

1) We will be proclaming a day for Public Works in Miami-Dade & Broward Counties (proclamation in progress).
2) We will be visiting different schools from Elementary to Sr. making physical demostrations of some of the tasks conducted by the different subdivisions of Public Works within their communities.
3) During this week the South Florida Branch of APWA will make announcements of the Schlarship and Project Awards in the Branch.

The City of Newton celebrated Public Works Week this year with assemblies at two local elementary schools. Third-graders learned about Public Works in the community and got a chance to see the City vehicles and equipment up-close. Public Works staff explained their jobs and how they use the equipment and then gave the kids a chance to try it out. The kids especially liked climbing into the different trucks and honking the horns. We also let the kids sign their names on a snow plow, which was a big hit.

The supervising principal said the program was a positive experience. "The third-graders really enjoyed it," he said. "And the city staff was great. They were patient with the kids, they smiled a lot, used words on the level they could understand, etc. . Let's do it again next year!"

Later in the week, we had a barbecue luncheon to honor all our Public Works employees and say thank you for all they do in our community.

The City of Sedona participated in its fifth annual Public Works Week celebration during the week of May 20 through 28. Mayor Colquitt issued a proclamation. The Red Rock News carried an article announcing the week. A display was placed at the Sedona Public Library. On May 22 as Public Works Fair was held in the City Hall Courtyard. Besides the various divisions of the Public Works Department, Arizona Department of Transportation, Arizona Water Company, Verde Valley Cyclists, Sedona Recycles, and Verde Valley Pest Control participated in the fair.

The Town of Shrewsbury celebrated it's 6th Annual Kid's Equipment Day and Open House on Saturday, May 19th, 2007.

The event was sponsored by the staff from Parks, Highway, and Water & Sewer Departments.

The town puts on display various trucks, mowing equipment, water conservation displays, and gives kid's truck rides.

Plastic kid's hard hats were handed out to the first 300 kids.

URL: http://www.shrewsbury-ma.gov/parkrec/index.asp