Employee of the Month
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Volume 16, Issue 2 February 2013 Employee of the Month Inside this issue: Employee of the 1 Month Quotable Quotes 1 LPW February Birthdays & 2 Anniversaries Raffle Winners 2 Farewell 2-3 Interesting Fact 3 The Many Facets 4-5 Roger Paradis—January 2013 Safety Matters 4 Daniel F. (Diz) Ouellette—February 2013 Roger Paradis, W&S Meter Person & Diz Ouellette, W&S Meter Reader, Director’s Report 5 have been selected as EOM for January and February 2013, respectively! GIS Link 6 These gentlemen were nominated for going above and beyond during an incident that took place while they were working together on replacing/ Humor for Health 6 troubleshooting residential water meters. Diz asked Roger to go to a Storm Nemo customer’s house for a final water meter reading instead of the next meter 6 Comparison address because they had time and the business office had requested the From the Past 7 reading. On route, Diz noticed an elderly lady sitting on her front stairs on Judith St. and waving her arm in a high arc like she was trying to get attention. Diz asked Roger to stop and go back. When they reached her, they discovered she had fallen and severely broken her leg. She was not prepared for the cold and had been calling for help for at least several minutes. Roger and Diz called 911, gave her one of their jackets for warmth and cared for her while waiting for the ambulance. Both men commented on how tough this lady was for handling the pain of a broken lower leg and withstanding the cold without complaint. If not for Diz’s awareness of his surroundings and the training and compassion of both men to stop and assist, things may have turned out very differently. CONGRATULATIONS! “A hug isn’t a hug until you give it away.” - submitted by Jeanne Raymond “The most serious charge which can be brought against New England is not Puritanism, but February.” - Joseph Wood Krutch “Winter is the time of promise because there is so little to do, or because you can now & then permit yourself the luxury of thinking so.” - Stanley Crawford FEBRUARY ANNOUNCEMENTS A Fond Farewell to Leo Lemay Leo Lemay leaves us after 15 years. Jon Elie stated he could not remember Leo ever taking a sick day in all those years. Always a smile on his face, and a LPW FEBRUARY spring in his step, Leo will be greatly missed. BIRTHDAYS 1st Dave Rioux, Garage 16th Maurice Dutil, Buildings 18th Norm Roy, W&S 21st Dennis Boudreau, Engineer. 22nd George Belanger, Hwy. 28th Wes Enman, Engineering LPW FEBRUARY ANNIVERSARIES 18 years Denise Charest, Dispatch 9 years Andy Parker, Highway 50/50 Raffle Winners 01/04/13 Rene Lavoie $28.00 01/11/13 Dan Rodrigue $30.00 01/18/13 Wes Enman $24.00 01/25/13 Norm Saindon $23.00 Sponsored by R&R.com Page 2 With recognitions from AFSCME, the City, and R&R.com, Leo’s farewell was filled with laughter, some tears, and a lot of hugs and handshakes. INTERESTING FACT: STORM NEMO?? Since when do they name snow storms? I was a little baffled when I read an article in the paper recently referring to the bliz- zard of 2013 as Storm Nemo. Curiosity got the best of me so I googled “why did they call the blizzard of 2013 Nemo” and found the following information from alaskadispatch.com: You can thank The Weather Channel (TWC). Late last year, TWC bestowed upon itself the mantle of official designator of winter storms. The National Weather Service was not amused. Here is TWC’s rationale: Naming a storm raises awareness. Attaching a name makes it easier to follow a weather system’s progress. A storm with a name takes on a personality all its own, which adds to awareness. In today’s social media world, a name makes it much easier to reference in communication. A named storm is easier to remember and refer to in the future. In its explanation, TWC notes that Europe has named winter storms for years. And, it says, no U.S. government body has stepped up to tackle the task for the benefit of the public. Why Nemo? Well, TWC says winter Storm Nemo isn’t named Leo’s final punch, at 3:00 on the dot. after the 2003 Disney movie “Finding Nemo” or the Captain Nemo of Jules Verne’s “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.” It says, Nemo is a Greek boys name meaning “from the valley;” it means “nobody” in Latin. Another website suggested that it was named after Captain Nemo for his ferocity and not the cute little cartoon fish. That makes a little more sense to me. One way or the other, I think we’re going to see this trend more often. Too bad they didn’t start in alphabetical order – perhaps, Storm Atlas … you know, the guy holding the globe. ‐ Jon Page 3 THE MANY FACETS OF PUBLIC WORKS Jacks of All Trades—the Highway Department Tackles a Variety of Winter Projects Up until storm Nemo, February 8-9, winter was off to a slow start with only five (5) snow storms dumping a mere combined total of 27 inches. Nemo alone added 25.5 inches in only about 36 hours and another 4 inches, Monday February 11th. As a result, the whole city was buried and Public Works has shifted gears. We started a night snow removal operation that began Wednesday, February 13 and is expected to run 3-4 weeks. Right before the big storm hit, Public Works crews had some time to get caught up with other maintenance issues that were left unfinished or put on the back burner. Listed below are a variety of productive tasks that Public Works staff were able to accomplish in between snow storms and sand/salt events: Workers from the Arborist crew have been busy limbing overhanging branches and cutting brush along sections of Jepson Brook and pruning/removing trees. While driving on East Ave. you may have noticed that the wooded area between the sidewalk and the LHS athletic facilities has been substantially thinned out and now provides a nice view of the sports fields. On rainy or extremely cold days we had workers remodeling the former main office which has since moved to City Hall. The goal is to convert the space to a large room for training seminars, conferences, etc. Other crews were getting a jump on Spring clean-up in parks and cemeteries by picking up broken branches, taking down Christmas decorations, servicing and reconditioning trucks and equipment, installing/replacing a variety of traffic signs and patching potholes with the new “hotbox”. The photos show the enhanced view of LHS and Andy Parker, Rene Lavoie, and Dan Ouellette in the process of repairing and painting approximately (200) of our beat up, mismatched No Parking signs. Some were faded orange, some were white, some yellowish. Some had just lettering, while others had symbols. Now they all have a nice consistent red and black symbol on a white background. - Jon Elie Safety Begins with You!! Members of the Safety Committee are always available to take questions and concerns you would like brought to the Committee. Please contact us. The next meeting is Thursday, March 21, 2013, at 1:00 p.m. in the PW Conference Room. Stay alert, work within your abilities, be a team. Work safe!! Norm Saindon, Chair Steve Damien, Vice Chair Don Mailhot, Sfty. Coord. Jim Ward, GIS Norm Roy, W&S Dave Saucier, Bldgs. Phil Brienza, Garage Jon Elie, Hwy. Hubie Affo, Hwy. Scott Bates, Hwy. Rob Stalford, SWF Lauren Shaw, Eng. Nick Poland, Hwy. “Safety doesn’t happen by accident.” -unknown Page 4 Director’s Report for January 2013 The Many Facets continued….. The wild weather continues with extreme cold and highs in the single digits, then soaring within a week into the 50’s. It has certainly been crazy. We had two more plowable storms (5” on Jan 16th and 3” on Jan 28-29). Total snowfall to date for this winter is 27”. Our salt/sand trucks responded and treated roads 8 times during the month. Street/Road & Sidewalk Improvement Projects Upcoming construction projects. - Lewiston contract 2013-002 Walnut St Rehab and Sidewalk Improvements (Bates St to Horton St). Bid Opening is scheduled for March 5 (est cost ~$400K CDBG funding); - MDOT PIN 19007.00 Rte 126 Sabattus St Traffic Signal Improvements (Main St to Pond Rd) Bid Opening April 17 (est cost $700K 100% state & federal funds) - MDOT PIN 014049.24 New Freedom Grant - Park St (Oak St to Ash St) sidewalk & ADA access. Bid Opening March 20 (est. cost ~$55K -100% state and federal funds) The crews completed the following workload: - Storm Drain catch-basin repairs were completed at 2 locations and cleaning the culvert at 750 Sabattus St; - Snow removal at 27 locations -fire stations, Armory, congested dead-end streets, cul-de-sacs & trouble spots; - Guard rail repairs were made on Old Lisbon Rd, River Rd, Grove St and Alfred Plourde Pkwy; - Tree removal and pruning on 7 streets and Jepson Brook. - Removed decorations & chipped hundreds of Christmas trees brought to the PW yard and SWF by residents; - Replaced damaged or worn street & directional signs at 19 locations around the City and replaced ~200 outdated and worn No Parking signs on streets where parking is limited on at least 1 side during the winter. Water, Sewer and Stormwater – Upcoming construction projects. These projects are expected to be advertised in the next few months: - Oak St Sewer & Stormwater Improvements (final section - Sabattus to White) (est.