Free Lunch Recognizes Efforts Of Herndon's Public Workers

HERNDON, VA — Public works employees in the Town of Herndon got a free lunch Wednesday as was part of a countywide effort to honor public works employees during National Public Works Week.

Cureate and Curbside Kitchen along with the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority extended the offer to Fairfax County to provide 1,400 meals from a variety of cuisines to public works employees. The county then opened up the effort to include Fairfax Water and the towns of Clifton, Herndon, and Vienna.

On Wednesday, Romano's Restaurant delivered boxed lunches to Herndon's Department of Public Works facility on Sterling Road.

"This is very wonderful," said Herndon Town Manager Bill Ashton, who greeted DPW workers as they picked up their lunches. "I'm very grateful for the organization to do this. Public Works guys are unsung heroes out in the community. It's good to see that they're getting the recognition they deserve."

DPW Director Scott Robinson was also grateful that his employees were getting this gesture of thanks.

"Ninety-five percent of what they do, people just don't see," he said. "Keeping the entire water system running is an entire effort, so people only notice it when it's not working. So a lot of their work is stuff that people don't recognize, even though they work very hard at it."

Every day, DPW workers perform a variety of functions in Herndon, including maintaining the Town's water and sewer distribution system. They also take care of all the roads and sidewalks, including snow removal. DPW workers oversee traffic management by maintaining all of Herndon's traffic signals and rights of way.

"All of the roads in Town are owned by the Town and all of the utilities that run under them are on Town property, so we coordinate with utility companies, the contractors, and the telecom companies, so that when they do construction they can work in our rights of way," said Robinson.

DPW workers also provide maintenance for all of Herndon's parks and open spaces. They also maintain the Town's stormwater system.

"The primary goal there, other than preventing flooding, is to protect the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay from potential stormwater pollution from litter, fertilizers, dog waste, automotive fluids, that kind of thing," Robinson said.

In addition, a DPW building official is responsible for inspecting construction sites, issuing building permits, and ensuring code compliance.

DPW's engineering and project management team oversees public capital projects, such as road improvements and upgrading the Town's facilities.

But where DPW workers are most visible to the public is in picking up refuse and recycling.

"You see the refuse guys out every day," Robinson said. "We provide service to about 6,100 in the Town."

When the coronavirus pandemic closed non-essential Town businesses and forced Herndon residents to stay at home, DPW continued operating. Some DPW functions had to be adapted to the new normal. For example, files for building inspections were allowed to be submitted online rather than in person.

"We did have to cut back to essential first-tier services," Robinson said. "For the most part, for Public Works, that means everything operates. It just may not operate on the same schedule or at the same level. We did cut some refuse services so that we could spread crews out further, keep them social distanced, so that we didn't have an absentee problem, which has worked for us. People have been sick, but not much more than you would normally expect."

One thing that Robinson finds nice about the Herndon community is how positive and appreciative it is about the services they receive from DPW.

"Providing continued service gives people some sense of normalcy, and the fact that our guys do what they do mostly with a smile on their face, kind of brightens people's day," Robinson said. "