Last month, City of Powell River took part in its first public works week celebration. Now in its 51st year, the annual event is held across North America to recognize and raise awareness of the jobs being done every day by public works to keep communities and infrastructure running.
“It’s an opportunity to educate the kids and give our people a sense of pride in what we do,” said superintendent of public works Murray Steer. “It’s also a chance to really emphasize for people the importance of what we do and its value to the community.”
This year’s events included a proclamation, employee recognition barbecue and fundraiser with monies raised going to Inclusion Powell River, school visits to the public works yard and a youth colouring contest. A total of six classes from grades three to five from local public and private schools took part in the tours and had a chance to learn about the different jobs and equipment involved in keeping the city running.
“They got to sit in the trucks, see the backhoe operate, our water mains, and a fire hydrant,” said Steer.
The best part of the day was seeing the happiness of workers who were able to explain their roles to the young visitors.
“The biggest benefit we got was the smiles on the faces of the staff,” said Steer. “Instead of having to dig a ditch that day they got to be a hero to somebody and tell kids what they do and kind of brag a little bit.”
After observing a variety of public works activities, children from throughout the community were invited to submit pictures of their interpretation of what constitutes good public works.
“Some drew pictures of recycling, some drew the big trucks they loved,” said Steer.
A total of 44 submissions were received. Drawings from two Westview Elementary grade three students were chosen. Artwork by Kyra King and Maylin Cairns will be enlarged and stenciled onto the sides of two new garbage and recycling trucks in the city. The new vehicles provided the emerging talent an excellent blank canvas, said Steer.
“Our garbage trucks are new and they’re fairly big and white,” he added. “We were looking for something to put on them to communicate good public works.”
Steer said the success of the week’s events can be summed up in the joyful reactions of the two contest winners.
“It’s a great initiative; the kids were really excited,” he said. “I don’t think I’ve seen bigger smiles than that.”
