The work of Bill Dircks touches the lives of everyone in Little Canada. From the water coming out of the tap to removing snow from the streets, he's the person in charge of public works. Today, Dircks hosted the Downstream Upstream tour of the water tower and traced it back to the water meter inside Children's Discovery Academy. Next week, he'll be showing the kids how the water goes out of their building and underground. He was kind enough to answer a few questions about the nature of his work.
JKB: What is your favorite part of your job?
BD: My favorite part of my job is knowing that what I do on a daily basis helps everyone in Little Canada in some way. We make it so residents don't have to worry about their homes flooding with rain water or sewage. We give them good roads to drive on and water to drink. They turn on their faucets without even thinking about whether or not water is going to come out. It is very rewarding to know that I am having an impact on so many people.
JKB: Could you describe your job in a general way?
BD: I am in charge of maintaining the City's streets, sanitary sewer system, water system, and storm sewer system. I manage a crew of five full time employees and two additional seasonal employees in the summer. We take care of things such as snow plowing, cleaning sewer lines, flushing fire hydrants, patching potholes, and sweeping streets. I also have a lot of contact with residents, business owners, and contractors, and I present information at City Council meetings relating to public works.
JKB: What drew you to this kind of work?
BD: As a kid I was always interested in road work and big construction equipment. I needed a summer job after my freshman year of college and decided to work for the City of Little Canada for the summer. I fell in love with the work immediately and continued to work as a public works seasonal worker in subsequent years. After I finished college I decided I wanted to work in the public works field.
JKB: What do you think about teaching children about the water system?
BD: I am excited to teach kids about the water system. I always have been intrigued by things like fire hydrants and how they work so I would have loved to have been taught about this stuff when I was young. Kids use water everyday and they see hydrants and water towers and other equipment everyday. I think it is important that they know what they are looking at and how they are able to drink water and bathe in it and use it for whatever other reasons.
JKB: What stories about the water system should be told, What missing connections should be made?
BD: I think it is important that children know that tap water is as safe or safer than bottled water. Tap water is tested more thoroughly than bottled water. I think it is important to know that while we have a seemingly unlimited supply of water here in Minnesota we still need to know that water cannot be wasted. We need to be responsible when using water. There are parts of the United States and the World where water is scarce and it could happen here if we aren't careful. The whole cycle of water is a good story and is important to know.
JKB: What is the role of community relations and outreach of an organization like yours.
BD: We try to keep residents informed of what's going on through our website and newsletter. There are occasionally articles in the local paper or even the big newspapers about what's going on in the City. We don't go much further than that due to financial and time concerns. Our city is small and our staff is also limited so most of our time is dedicated to keeping things running. A project like this allows me to go a little further in reaching out.
JKB: What do you like about water?
BD: I like that water is so readily available to us here in Minnesota. I like that it is so refreshing and has so many different uses to us. I think our drinking water in Little Canada tastes great.
JKB: Any interesting facts you can share about our water?
BD: The City of Little Canada's water tower holds 1.5 million gallons of water. On a hot summer day when many people are watering their lawns we use all of that water and then some. If you figure there are roughly 10,000 residents in the City that equates to about 150 gallons of water used per person on those hot days. In the winter we use about half of that or around 750,000 gallons per day. The water we distribute comes from St. Paul and is some of the best tasting water around. There have been taste tests done with bottled water and tap water from different cities and the cities have won numerous times. 1000 gallons of water costs about $2.50 in Little Canada. 1000 gallons of bottled water costs a minimum of $2000. If you hit a fire hydrant with a car water does not gush out of the ground. There is a valve below the ground that keeps the water from flowing out even when the head gets knocked off. We have 530 hydrants in Little Canada.
JKB: What is the hardest part of your job?
BD: The hardest part of my job is keeping all of our pipes and hydrants and the water tower and other equipment maintained on a limited budget. I would love to put brand new pipes in the ground every few years and get the latest technology but we have to be responsible with people's money. We have to pick the most important projects and direct funds toward those and do our best to maintain everything else with what we have.
JKB: What is the role of community relations and outreach of an organization like yours.
BD: We try to keep residents informed of what's going on through our website and newsletter. There are occasionally articles in the local paper or even the big newspapers about what's going on in the City. We don't go much further than that due to financial and time concerns. Our city is small and our staff is also limited so most of our time is dedicated to keeping things running. A project like this allows me to go a little further in reaching out.
JKB: What excites you about the future?
BD: I am excited to see what types of treatment methods will be developed in the future. I'm sure most of the methods used to treat water now will be improved upon. I'm excited for new technology that I can't even think of right now but will make my job easier.
Thank you Bill and the City of Little Canada for the tour! We'll see you next week...
