Public Works Dept. List Of ‘Things To Do’ Just Keeps Getting Longer

By Steve Bigham

Do you think roads are all Newtown’s Public Works Department has to deal with these days? Think again. Fred Hurley and his 31-man crew always seem to have an endless list of things to do. This summer their task list is longer than a prom queen’s dance card.

“That’s what we do. We do everything,” Mr Hurley said this week.

First, there is the Dickinson Park bathroom project, which has been delayed for more than a year, mainly because two private contractors backed out of doing the job at the last minute. After the months had passed, the project was handed off to the Public Works Department to do.

Then there is the Amaral Property along Elm Drive. After the budget failed this past April, the Legislative Council was forced to cut funding for the development of the land for baseball fields from $550,000 to $350,000. First Selectman Herb Rosenthal suggested the town use town fill and town workers as a $200,000 cost saving measure. And this week, the town’s landscape architect reported that town workers needed to “move the earth” by July 1 in order to have the fields ready for next spring. The project entails moving some 16,000 cubic yards of dirt, a massive undertaking that will require 800 tri-axle (large dump trucks) loads.

Also this week, the Public Works Department was given the task of finding a new steering box for the town’s Hook & Ladder truck, also no easy task, considering the part will have to be custom made.

Furthermore, Currituck Road remained closed this week as the Public Works bridge repair project faced further delays. The road has been closed since January.

And earlier this week, volunteers were hinting that they would need the help of the town to dig holes for the Treadwell Park playground project.

Soon, sinkholes will start popping up all over town due to the weather. It will be the job of Fred Hurley’s department to make sure no one gets sunk.

Last week’s storm also threw Public Works out of kilter. “We’re still cleaning up trees and wires,” Mr Hurley said. “We could have kept our crews busy all day, every day, just doing other drainage work, but we were tied up with storm responses. That’s something you have to get used to in the department. In the private sector you can focus on one job at a time. We have to drop everything and go to where the crisis is.”

Mr Hurley likened Public Works to the Roman Army, which spent most of its time building roads and aqueducts, putting down its shovels only in times of war.

“Public Works is not a whole lot different. We battle and fight storms in between fixing roads and doing drainage work,” Mr Hurley said. “There’s always something you’re trading off. We never run out of jobs to do. There will never be a time when we don’t have work to do. We’re constantly prioritizing. One thing you have to do is be flexible because you don’t have control over things

Mr Hurley said a lot of the projects would never get done if it were not for the cooperation of the people within the Newtown government. The strong working relationship between Public Works, Board of Education maintenance, Parks & Recreation maintenance, etc. has saved both time and money, he said.

 According to Mr Hurley, per square mile, Newtown has the smallest public works/highway department in the state.