Through my work with the change team, a fact was discussed among the entire group which I already knew existed — the two-person Public Works Building Maintenance Division is not keeping up with the demands of aging City facilities.  In my two-and-a-half years as Director, the most heated complaints that I have received are from people with air conditioning systems that are not working.  Historically, the staff has worked all day and numerous overtime hours responding to breakdowns.  Many of these air conditioning units were so old that breakdowns were frequent.  Over the past year, we have contracted to replace several units.  In addition, this spring we contracted for preventative maintenance on all the air conditioning units cooling City Buildings.  This was a major undertaking, but I expect the effort to be well worth it and I guarantee there will be far less outages as we head into summer. 

     Over the past few weeks, I have heard several employees comment on how well the staff at the Public Works City Shops are working together to help each other out, not just within their respective Divisions, but also working across Divisions to get tasks done as efficiently and effectively as possible.  We have numerous new employees and I would like to thank them for readily accepting new assignments and their eagerness to learn.  We have new supervisors and I would like to thank them for treating their staff with respect and fairness.  I have heard comments from the staff that the new supervisors are doing a great job.  Most importantly I would like to thank Don Donahue for the excellent job he is doing as the new Public Works Superintendent.  Don stepped into this role and began performing at an excellent level immediately.  Not to mention, Don is still performing many of the functions of the Water & Sewer Division Supervisor. 

      I wish I had enough room in this article to discuss the important efforts all of the Public Works Divisions are doing this time of year.  The Engineering Division is busy with several projects.  The most exciting is the expansion at Veterans’ Memorial Park and the Regional Training Facility.  As water use increases with the warm weather, the Water & Sewer Division responds to more reports of water leaks.  The Street Division just received a new Street Sweeper, which is just in time as the old sweeper spent numerous weeks in the repair shop over the past twelve months. 

     In closing, I want to remind everybody that June is the most popular wedding month.  So those of you who are married make your anniversary plans now.