By Adam Donnelly

Kamloops celebrates National Public Works Week

May 27, 2017 | 2:00 PM

KAMLOOPS — It was a busy day at the City of Kamloops Public Works Yard, as hundreds of local families came out to a Public Works Open House hosted by the city. The event was a celebration of the unseen heroes who make sure our sewers and water work, our garbage and recycling is collected, and our streets are repaired and cleared of snow, and was held to wrap up National Public Works Week.

“The intent is to celebrate the work that the men and women of public works do each and every day,” Director of Public Works and Utilities Jen Fretz explained. “It’s not something the public sees all the time, it just happens, and is assumed, really. So the idea is for people to come as see what it is we truly do.”

Kids of all ages got the opportunity to get their hands on some of the equipment the city has. Kids were able to hop into excavators, or on boom trucks, and into loaders, and get first hand (and supervised) experience in what many of the municipal workers do to keep the infrastructure in the city repaired and running well.

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Kurt Paloposki works in the Water Utility Department, and today was showing off the city’s stiff boom crane truck. He says getting to meet interested members of the public was his favourite part of the day.

“This iOS my first time [at Public Works Day] and I’ve been here 10 years,” Paloposki told CFJC Today. “It’s a lot of fun, actually. It’s great to see the kids come and get to try the equipment.”

City staffers gave tours of several shops located at the public works yard and set up a birdhouse painting station, a bouncy house, and cooked hot dogs for hungry families.

by Adam Donnelly

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Kamloops celebrates National Public Works Week

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