Every year, the American Public Works Association honors the men and women in Public Works who work to improve the infrastructure of cities across the nation. Here in San Gabriel, our Public Works department is responsible for several important parts of our community, including our streets, parks, sewers, sidewalks, and City-owned vehicles.

These responsibilities are organized under five divisions:

• Administration, which coordinates, manages and supports the department as a whole
• Field Operations, which maintains and repairs street pavement, sidewalks, traffic signals, signs and street lighting systems
• Parks and Facilities, which oversees the planting, trimming and irrigation of all City parks and City trees
• Fleet Services, responsible for all City-owned vehicles
• Engineering, responsible for designing and overseeing pavement projects, sidewalks and pedestrian safety improvements

Chances are, if you’ve driven or walked in the City, you’ve used a piece of infrastructure that our Public Works team is responsible for. To celebrate Public Works Week, San Gabriel’s Public Works team visited several local schools to give students a glimpse of what the department is responsible for on a day-to-day basis.

A student at Dewey Avenue Elementary using the City’s street painting truck (without paint, of course)

Public Works team member Ricky demonstrates how traffic signals work

Students gather around Public Works team member Jake to learn more about the City’s sewer truck

Students gather around Public Works team member Chris as he gives a tour of the City’s backhoe

Public Works team member Timmy handing out stickers to students

If you’d like to learn more about Public Works, be sure to visit their website here.