Recognition Week Focuses On Public Service Careers

By Nancy K. Crevier

Since 1985, Public Service Recognition Week has sought to acknowledge the thousands of Americans who work as local, state, and federal employees, and to raise awareness of the services provided by those public servants. This year, Public Service Recognition Week is celebrated May 3 through May 9.

The men and women who work in public service provide a broad spectrum of services, from teaching to providing social services to infrastructure maintenance to clerking. Many are visibly in the public eye, others perform their duties behind the scenes. Each individual and each group of public workers, though, is a vital cog in the wheel that makes a government system turn smoothly.

In Newtown, 174 town employees are among those in public service. Fred Hurley, director of Public Works, Amy Mangold, Parks and Recreation director, and Donna Culbert, director of Public Health, shared insight into the responsibilities of their positions and of the staffs they oversee, as well as how public service employees affect the public.

As public works director, Fred Hurley oversees numerous departments in Newtown that in a larger city, he said, would be separate entities. In Newtown, public works incorporates management of solid waste, curbside recyclables, the hazardous waste program, the transfer station, wastewater treatment and the water company for Fairfield Hills, and public building maintenance. Public works is responsible for the purchase and maintenance of town vehicles, operates the town garage, oversees bridge and dam reconstruction, and procures energy — heating fuel, electricity, natural gas, and diesel — for the town. The biggest department is the highway department, taking care of the 265 miles of roads in Newtown year around.

Mr Hurley is Newtown’s first and only public works director, having started in 1989 as officials acknowledged the need for professional direction in a growing town. “There was a change at that time in the infrastructure that the town was going to be responsible for and management of the resources was disjointed,” said Mr Hurley. “My job was to plan and execute capital improvements going forward and to bring unity to the management of town resources,” he said. It is a job that has given him great satisfaction, he said.

“From the dollar standpoint, I think my biggest accomplishment has been the sewer system. We went through two or three versions that would meet the needs of the town, meet regulatory requirements, and was affordable,” said Mr Hurley. Affordability was the key, he added. “We went from an initial plan costing $150 million to roughly $30 to $40 million,” he said. By compressing what had been a seven-year plan into a 30-month period, a savings of approximately $17 million was realized, Mr Hurley said.

Without a Public Works Department, the town would not have been able to afford the growth it has seen, said Mr Hurley, and each of the 51 people employed there works to see that operations run as they should. “When you see them in a real emergency, that’s when you realize they really shine,” he said. “You never see this staff panic. When everything is going wrong, you have people who will find a way to get the job done.”

Sometimes, there is difficulty in meeting the expectations of the public and what can be delivered, he said. “It’s a matter of planning how you are going to attack the problem, though, and being flexible. You want to get the largest amount of impact for the least amount of money. We try to keep basic resources available at an affordable price,” Mr Hurley said.

His career in public service has been satisfying. “I enjoy fixing problems and making people’s lives better. At the local level,” said Mr Hurley, “you can actually see that you are making an impact on people’s daily lives.”

Parks and Recreation director Amy Mangold agreed that making a difference in people’s lives is a common source of pride for those involved in public works. She has been in a public service job for 23 years in some capacity, she said, and finds it thoroughly satisfying. “People in this field work to improve the quality of life for people, communities, and society as a whole,” said Ms Mangold. “I find it to be a very important and rewarding career,” she said.

As director of Parks and Recreation, she oversees 17 people directly on a daily basis, works with her assistant RoseAnn Reggiano and the Parks and Recreation Commission to recommend long and short-term goals and to determine the budget, and works with public relations, among other duties.

In the two years she has held this position, said Ms Mangold, she is pleased with some of the accomplishments. “We’ve worked really hard to come up with a master plan for revitalizing Dickinson Park and to implement it. We’ve established a strong trails committee, and are working with a very enthusiastic group of residents to install a dog park. These are great investments in the future of our community,” she said.

Working in the public eye are the parks crew and office staff, too, said Ms Mangold. “It’s hard to find enough hours to get the jobs done. They have a wide variety of responsibilities. But they are such a dedicated staff. All of the staff takes great pride in their work,” Ms Mangold said. “Finding a balance in what the public wants has always been a difficult responsibility,” she said, “but I think they do a great job. We know we are bringing pleasure and purpose to people’s lives.”

Public workers are essential to the community, stressed Ms Mangold. “The amount of time that goes into what our department alone does is huge. I don’t think that there would be enough volunteers to maintain the quality of programs without public employees,” she said.

The Health District, made up of Newtown, Bridgewater, and Roxbury, provides essential services to the communities, said Newtown health director Donna Culbert. She has served in the public eye for 14 years, the last eight in her current position. The Newtown health department consists solely of herself, a town sanitarian, two assistant town sanitarians, and a food service inspector, as well as Dr Thomas Draper, the medical advisor. The staff must take care of monitoring the town’s health status, enforcing health regulations, educating the public, working with community partners such as the Senior Center and schools, and investigating health issues. “We are a small staff, that’s why it’s important for us to work with our community partners,” said Ms Culbert.

But the staff is highly qualified, she emphasized, and highly experienced in working with people. “And that’s what we’re about — listening to and helping people get to where they need to be, whatever the problem,” she said.

One of the accomplishments of which the department is particularly proud right now, said Ms Culbert, is the response to the H1N1 crunch. “The staff was fantastic. We got thousands of phone calls, and all we had was information to begin with. They were reassuring, and good at getting that information out, and then setting up the vaccination clinics. That was a big test,” she said.

The health department has also been able to support Kevin’s Community Center, a necessary health care alternative, said Ms Culbert.

“I get to use problem solving skills and I get to connect it to people. That’s what I like about begin a public employee,” Ms Culbert said. “Knowing that you can make a difference, and being a part of the big, overall team is amazing. It’s synergy,” she said, “at it’s very best.”