Spring Valley’s Public Works Department is comprised of several staff which ultimately provide for the core of the services that residents and taxpayers receive. The staff includes Motor Operators, Maintenance Techs, Custodians, Janitors, Mechanics, Laborers and Groundskeepers; and they are tasks with various construction services, public services which includes parks maintenance, roadway maintenance (milling and paving), basin repair, heavy machinery operation snow removal and Vehicle Maintenance. The DPW staff are well experienced in their respective fields of responsibility and work well as a team.

The Public Works Department managed approximately $35 million dollars in the delivery of their services to the public and capital projects. These Divisions, working together under the leadership of the Superintendents of Public Works along with the Supervisor of DPW are responsible for the control and maintenance of all Village owned or leased structures and the balance of the Village’s infrastructure.

The Public Works Department operates under very tight budget constraints. In FY 2017/2018, the total funds allocated to Public Works to perform all of their annual programs, deal with all of the storms that hit the Village, maintain all of the public buildings and maintain all of the parks, playgrounds and grounds and maintain all of the roads and decorative lights in downtown, maintain the fleet of vehicles and heavy equipment . In addition, we also pay for all of the fuel that the other departments use, maintenance, and repairs for the large fleet of police vehicles and all of the utilities for our public buildings.

The Superintendent and Supervisor are accountable for the performance of their departments, and the effective and efficient spending of the taxpayers’ money. The management structure of the department, overall, is flat with only one level of supervision below the Superintendent. The balance of the team consists of field personnel, (laborers, groundskeepers and janitors) motor vehicle operators and mechanics. The Superintendent is hands-on and often is in the field with his Supervisor and staff.

The administration of all the responsibilities of the Public Works Department is very complex and challenging. The Supervisor strives to create a team approach to carry out all of the tasks that the department must perform. The success of the Department is largely attributed to the men and women who perform the work and deliver the services to the taxpayers. The Director strives to create a working environment for his general work force that is based on teamwork, respect, loyalty and accountability. This is a work environment that provides for DPW to be the best at what they do.

The Superintendent of Public Works is very active in his field and continually talks to other municipal public works professionals to share experiences and success stories. His personal goal is to have his department provide a legacy of making decisions, implementing processes and procedures and caring for the Village’s infrastructure in a way that will provide meaningful, long-lasting contributions and a positive influence on the lives of the residents and the culture of the Village of Spring Valley.

The Public Works Department had major accomplishments in the 2017/2018 fiscal year. None of these accomplishments would have happened if it was not for the support of the Mayor’s Office. They provide the operational support that allows us to execute our work. The Superintendent continues to be actively involved in the day to day activities of the DPW. This past year the Public Works Department was proud to administrate several projects. The following is a summary of some of the projects:

• Phases 1 – 6 of the Danbury High School Addition and Renovations project are substantially complete.
• Successful completion and dedication of the Memorial Park on Main St. and the Soldiers Park at Main and West Streets and Heritage Walk at City Hall.
• Reclaimed, milled and paved 7.71 miles of City roads
• Re-beautification and Fitness Trail at Rogers Park Pond completed
• Successful completion of the Westville Avenue Improvement Project
• Completion of the 1M gallon storage tank at WestConn Pump Station site
• Roof replacements were completed at Broadview Middle School, the Old Quarry, and 15 Main St.
• Managed the design of the sewage treatment plant upgrade valued at 110M.

The DPW, while scheduling and completing all of their various annual programs, as well as responding to storms and storm clean up, resurfaced 7.71 miles of city roads in 2017, eliminated 4 icing issues, replaced or repaired 210 stormwater catch basins which included over 2,310 feet of new drainage pipe, replaced/repaired 2 storm drainage culverts, and 1 headwall, all performed by utilizing in-house staff.

The DPW mechanics were able to respond to all work orders. For a small staff, these mechanics have done a tremendous job keeping up with work orders and responding to emergencies.