ICDPW displays scope of work during annual open house
School children, members of the community and other county departments had the opportunity Wednesday to learn more about the various facets and projects the Imperial County Department of Public Works is involved in.
Public Works welcomed visitors as part of its 11th annual open house which took place at its administrative office in El Centro. Every year ICDPW holds the event as part of the celebration of National Public Works Week which focuses on educating the public on the importance of the contribution of public works to neighborhoods in areas such as planning, building, managing and operating the heart of our local communities.
“It allows the public to come in and interact with this department to see the full scope of what we do,” said ICDPW Director John Gay. “There are a lot of things that we do in the day-today basis, so it’s good for us to reach out to the public and let them see everything we do.”
ICDPW set a display of a few of the vehicles which they use as part of its duties outside its office to educate the community and children about the different tasks each does.
This year, more than 170 children from DeAnza Magnet and Lincoln Elementary schools attended the open house in which they got an opportunity to learn more about different jobs ICDPW does as well as learn more about the machinery it uses.
This was the first open house held by the department since Gay was appointed as director. For this year he said he wanted the event to have four major components: the environment, education, outreach and communication with other county departments.
Since environment was given a bigger emphasis this year the department added a presentation of how it handles solid waste and touched on the importance of recycling.
“We view this as an educational opportunity for the children,” he said. “We try to send positive notes to the community, one of the big issues that we try to talk about is to be responsible and avoid littering, to recycle and take care of our environment ... that is a big message that we are trying to send today.”
Chairman of the Board of Supervisors Michael Kelley was among the county officials that attended the event to get a glimpse of the different presentations and how the children engage with the ICDPW staff.
“It was outstanding, I commend the Department of Public Works for the wonderful public outreach they have done,” Kelley said. “It was a very good and dynamic event. They did a very good job at displaying everything public works does in the community.”
He also noted such event gives the public the opportunity to get familiar with a county department and have a better understanding of all of its components.
Gay also mentioned that another valuable aspect of the open house is to display the vast array of career path opportunities within the department, to allow the students to be aware of those job opportunities in the future.
“I like the fact that we are able to share, able to listen to concerns or advice,” he said. “We try to be very transparent and this is a mean we try to use to show the community what we do,” he said. “I like the fact that we are able to share what opportunities there are for the future and what we do.”