Public Works Opens its Doors

Once a year, Public Works employees introduce themselves and their equipment to a group of children.

This Monday, it was about 70 second graders from the Ellsworth Elementary School, who also got to climb into fire trucks and talk to police officers.

Principal Anna Rocco took a 50-foot cherry picker ride into the sky, while her students chanted, “Higher, higher, higher.”

“Do you think she’s going to be afraid,” asked Public Works Director Antonio Iadarola.

“Yes,” the students shouted back.

“What if she doesn’t want to go?” he asked.

“Strap her in,” one student suggested.

Rocco was strapped into a harnass that was clipped to the bucket. She probably couldn’t have gotten out if she wanted. The lift was smooth and she wasn't too worried, she said, once she got down.

“It’s an interesting tour,” said Rocco, once her feet were back on the ground. “The students see how they keep the community going. These are people they see every day, and now they’re hearing and seeing how they work.”

The students saw chain saw demonstrations and the cherry picker from the city’s Forestry division, the fire trucks and how the department sets up a small plastic pool to make pumping easier when they reach some fires. And the students talked to police officers about their work as well.

"Why do you carry a gun," one student asked Lt. John Browne, who was talking to the class with Officer Sonny Usher.

"What do you know about guns," Browne replied.

"Guns are dangerous," a half-dozen students responded.

"What do we do if we see something that looks like it might be a real gun?" he asked. "Do we touch it?"

"Tell our parents," a few students said.

"What if our parents aren't home," one boy asked.

"We tell a responsible adult," Browne said.

"If we're lost, will the police help us," another boy asked.

"Yes," Browne said. "How do you know it's a police officer?"

He answered his own question. "I'm wearing a badge," he tapped that. "I'm wearing a patch," he tapped his shoulder patch that said, "Danbury Police."

"Who wants a badge?" he asked the children, and a few minutes later, the Public Works complex was over-run by 70 junior officers.