- April 23, 2024
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Joyce Shanahan learns employee problems and concerns.
The old joke is that when you see two workers digging a hole, one of them is always leaning on a shovel.
City Manager Joyce Shanahan will tell you it’s not a joke but actually true, and there’s a good reason for it. She found out what it’s like to dig on a hot day in her Field Day program, where she takes on a city employee’s job.
It was 85 degrees the day Shanahan was helping to dig a 4-foot deep trench for a sewer line.
“Honestly, you can’t dig nonstop,” she said. “It’s exhausting. I was the one leaning on a shovel.”
In the Field Day program, Shanahan learns the details of city jobs, so that when there is a request in the budget for equipment, or some type of problem, Shanahan knows what the city staff is talking about.
“It’s been very beneficial,” she said. “It helps me understand what crew members do.”
Also, it gives her a chance to talk to employees one on one.
“They are not shy,” Shanahan said.
Sometimes, an employee may need a part that does not cost a lot of money. Shanahan can expedite the purchasing process, so that the employee doesn’t have to wait a year for it to be placed in the budget.
For example, when she dressed up in a padded suit to learn how to subdue an unruly suspect with the police department, she discovered the suit was held together with duct tape. She made sure the police got a new one.
Reading meters may look like it only involves strolling down the street, but there’s much more to it, Shanahan learned.
“A lot of people don’t trim around the meters,” she said. “And they are full of sand and bugs. I don’t like bugs.”
Also, when she tried to read the meters, her glasses would steam up because it was so hot. (The city is currently replacing the manual-read meters with touch-read and radio-read meters in a five-to-eight year project.)
Another project involved adding chemicals at a sewage lift station.
“It’s very aromatic,” she said.
She has also dipped a cup in sewage at the main treatment plant for testing, where he found that a lot of things advertised as flushable do not biodegrade. The city recently redesigned the impeller system at the plant so that these items don’t clog up the system.
“That commercial that shows someone dumping golf balls down a toilet doesn’t help us,” she said.
She also has also gone down into a manhole to remove tires and other objects from storm water lines. She said people throw all kinds of things down the drains along the streets, but they are designed only for storm water.
Other field day projects include operating an industrial mower, unloading and spreading mulch, taking part in an “active shooter” exercise with police, sign making, code enforcement and street sweeping.
“We have an amazing group of employees,” Shanahan said. “They do their jobs well and I’m proud to be part of that.”
