West Cook News

The city of Elmhurst celebrated the citizen graduates of its second annual Public Works Academy at a recent city council meeting.

"The Academy is designed to give our residents an inside look at how public works operates in Elmhurst to provide a better understanding between public works and the community," Mayor Scott Levin said. "It provides an opportunity for the community to interact with our engineers, water department, wastewater operators and city staff to learn about forestry, the street maintenance fleet, and much more."

The program began in 2022, The second academy was held this spring. 

Public Works Director Stanley Balicki congratulated the 35 participants who finished the course and thanked several who attended the council meeting.

“We've been excited to be able to tell our story to this year's class of the Academy, not only by conducting classroom time and talking about what we do but also by including demonstrations of how we do certain things, being able to conduct tours of city facilities as a part of that," Balicki said. 

The academy consisted of five two-hour Thursday evening sessions beginning in April, covering the five main components of the department’s responsibilities. The first class was on budget, administration, and management. Week two was public works operations, including forestry, street maintenance and fleet maintenance. Week three discussed underground utilities, including water mains, wastewater and stormwater, and included tours of the city’s water infrastructure facilities. Week four continued those lessons and tours. In the final week, students were given a history lesson on public works by local museum director Dave Oberg. 

Balicki named the class graduates who were in attendance and then honored the rest of the class. He thanked the public works department staff for putting in the extra time to teach the sessions and the city council for supporting the program. The classes are open to anyone 18 years or older.