On May 22, the City of Moose Jaw’s Public Works department hosted its annual open house event to commemorate Public Works Week, which runs from May 19 – 25.
National Public Works Week is a national celebration as well as international, and the week is recognized across both Canada and the United States.
“(The goal) is to (demonstrate and explain) what public works does and how they bring (an increased) quality of life to the residents within their communities,” explained Staci Dobrescu, manager of public works and utilities for the City of Moose Jaw.
The scope of the public works department entails almost everything that improves residents’ quality of life and includes road maintenance, pothole repairs, snow removal, running the wastewater treatment plant, and city park maintenance.
Public Works Week may be celebrated internationally, but the exact details of how the week is recognized depends on local municipalities who act independent of one another.
“Some (communities) run more of an educational (event) for their staff, and some run the educational (aspect) to the public,” Dobrescu said. “We do a mixture of it all.”
Dobrescu said the event in Moose Jaw has been celebrated for around seven years now and began when she was approached by the Saskatchewan Public Works Association (PWA) while still serving on the public works board.
“I wasn’t aware of this (at the time),” she said. “It’s not something we ever celebrated, or (at least) we hadn’t signed the proclamation declaring … (the start of) Public Works Week. And so, we started doing that.”
Since formally recognizing the week, Dobrescu said it has been a great addition to the community.
“We found that giving kids, students, and the public an opportunity to come down, talk to the staff and find out what the pieces of equipment are (used for)… and how they make a better quality of life… is really nice…,” she explained.
To help enhance the educational component of the event, students from each of Moose Jaw’s high schools attended an informational presentation from 10 to 10:30 a.m. Following this, everything was open for the public to come and go as they pleased.
One consideration that makes careers at the City of Moose Jaw’s public works department interesting is the vast opportunity to explore and move into a wide variety of roles.
“We have a staff (member) who started as a lifeguard, and they started working over in parks. Now they’ve moved over to wastewater,” she explained in one example. “It’s actually really interesting how you can step through so many different careers within one organization.”
The available career paths range from park maintenance to operating heavy equipment to IT and roles in the legal department.
“And,” she continued, “if you don’t like (a new job role) you can move back to where you were until you decide what path you want to follow.”
The aim of the annual open house is to allow students an opportunity to learn more about the men and women who work hard to keep the community running and to allow the public an opportunity to learn more about the interconnected nature of the department.
“Everything is somehow connected to Public Works,” she said. “And a lot of people don’t see that connection, so we’re trying to make that connection for them by doing this outreach…”
The open house event took place at the City of Moose Jaw’s Utilities Service Centre located at 1010 High Street West.
For more information or to contact the Public Works department, visit MooseJaw.ca or call 306-694-4448.
