street talk | march 2012 issue

inside:Feature What does it mean to be a ‘hero’? We asked, you answered… and it turns out that you don’t need the super powers of your favorite com-ic book character to be considered a ‘hero’.

STREET TALKREPORTING ON WHAT MATTERS TO PUBLIC WORKSVOLUME 2 ISSUE 2 MARCH 2012

PWdsuperheroes

Kick Asphalt!

director’s messageBY HOWARD LAZARUS DIRECTOR

02 STREET TALK MARCH 2012

I

EDITORIALEditor in Chief:

Chief Reporter:

Contributing Writers:

DESIGNChief Graphic Designer:

Director of Photography:

Sara [email protected]

Sharon [email protected]

Vera [email protected]

Alexa [email protected]

Shannon [email protected]

Sara [email protected]

Luciano [email protected]

STREET TALK

Gerald [email protected]

Howard [email protected]

Michelle [email protected]

Profiles in Courage Dianna Robles

[email protected]

Clayton [email protected]

Palmer [email protected]

Julie Richeyconcept development & planning

Eva [email protected]

Max [email protected]

n 1955, Senator John F Kennedy collab-orated on and published the book Profiles in Courage. The book, which was required reading when I was in junior high school (which was what middle school was called back in the Dark Ages), described acts of bravery and integrity by eight United States Senators throughout the Senate’s history. These were acts of moral courage - doing the right thing in the face of sometimes overwhelming peer and social pressures. While the challenges most of us face on a daily basis seldom rise to the level of public prominence detailed in Senator Kennedy’s book, they nevertheless have real and lasting impacts on the people around us.

This month’s issue of Street Talk focuses on our Public Works heroes, our coworkers who have exhibited extraordinary courage in the course of conducting day-to-day business. As you read through their stories, ask yourself, “What makes a hero? What are the com-mon threads that bind these actions to-gether? Would I have done the same thing if faced with the same circumstances? How is Public Works a better place as a result of their actions?” The comedian Woody Allen

is credited as the source of the quotation, “90% of success in life is showing up.” If true, what makes up the remaining 10%: perseverance, motivation, dedication, compassion?

The concepts of heroism and leader-ship are tied closely together. Heroes and leaders both influence others through the power of the personal examples they set. Whether or not you are in a formal posi-tion of leadership, you do set the tone for your work group by the outlook you bring with you everyday. You also influence per-

ceptions by the ways you look, talk, and in-teract with the public, other agencies, and your coworkers. I am sure that when each of us gets out of bed in the morning with the full potential of the day still ahead of us, none of us makes a

conscious decision that we want to be un-happy. However, we sometimes find that by mid-afternoon something has soured our outlook. When you find yourself down and out, ask yourself where were the points where I could have taken a positive step and changed the course of the day? How could I have shown the heroism and lead-

ership to keep an upbeat attitude, not just for me but for my fellow Public Workers and citizens as well?

Over the coming months, we as a de-partment are going to invest significantly in leader development, not only at the first line supervisor level but also through-out the supervisory chain. While much of the training will be focused on providing skills like communications, organizational knowledge, counseling, and coaching, we will also address the personal character-istics that contribute to the model of the strong, compassionate leaders who will sustain a supportive and positive environ-ment in Public Works. For the training to be effective, we’ll need you to be brave enough to open up and engage, and set the example for your peers. In other words, we’ll need you to be a hero!

-Woody Allen”“

2012 MARCH STREET TALK 03

COVER STORY

PWD Superheroes Kick Asphalt!What does it mean to be a ‘hero’? We asked, you answered… and it turns out that you don’t need the super powers of your favorite comic book character to be con-sidered a ‘hero’.

contentsMARCH 2012

cityspace.austintexas.gov/departments/pwdVOLUME 2 ISSUE 2

Downtown Water Tunnel

contentsMARCH 2012

cityspace.austintexas.gov/departments/pwdVOLUME 2 ISSUE 2

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features

divisions

columns

ALL AROUND AUSTIN

SBO: HEROES THROUGH THE STORM

NEW PAVING EQUIPMENT AR-RIVES AT STREET AND BRIDGE

HOW WELL DO YOU KNOW YOUR NEIGHBOR?

THE SAFETY ZONE

Public Workers spent time in January and February doing all kinds of things around town to highlight the work we do in PWD. See what’s been happening and what is coming up next.

Public Workers assist public safety crews and our citizens after a destruc-tive tornado strikes.

Michelle Frith profiles two employees that work hard for PWD everyday, who you may have never met!

Change is in the air… and more im-portantly, on the road over at the SBO Pavement Operations Division. Find out the details surrounding this new state-of-the-art machinery.

How safe are you staying on the job? Tips on how you can make improve-ments on the job and in your daily life!

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NPP: DEVELOPING COMMUNITY HEROESHow NCD’s Neighborhood Partnering Program is helping to turn our citizen’s dreams into reality.

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MILESTONESWhat Public Workers are doing out there to achieve, foster community, im-press co-workers and citizens alike, and show we really are the ‘Department with a Heart’!

The Diversity council wants to hear from you. Check out the new system they devised to channel your ideas straight to the source!

27

THE DIVERSITY COUNCIL: 31

GUEST COLUMN:

How Public Works and other City de-partments are trying to make Austin the most livable city!This Month: the Austin Fire Depart-ment (AFD)

24

HR: ESTABLISHING BASE PAYEver wonder exactly how your pay is calculated? Here you will discover the inner workings of the zoning system and find out some results from the ‘Lis-tening to the Workforce’ survey.

09PWD SUPERHEROES KICK ASPHALT!What does it mean to be a ‘hero’? We asked, you answered… and it turns out that you don’t need the super powers of your favorite comic book character to be considered a ‘hero’.

12

CIPID: BEHIND THE SCENESHere, you’ll get to step into your muck-ers, strap on a head lamp and meet the CIP Inspection Division’s Tunnel group.

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PMD: SHARING THE SUCCESS OF THE 32ND STREET PROJECT

32nd Street had some inherent chal-lenges to overcome. Read about how the project team, with the help of our communications consultant, took on the task with great result!

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BY SHARON WARREN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

safety zone

What makes a Safety Hero?Are you going to heroic lengths to make sure you and your co-workers stay safe?

Safety Hero is someone that is an advocate for safety, some-

one that will go the extra step - above and beyond - on safety issues. They will make sure that hazards are reported and corrected; they will as-sist others in making sure they have what they need in every safety as-pect, and they will find opportuni-ties to learn more about safety.

Safety Meetings are manda-tory and you will be rated on your attendance on your SSPR, but that doesn’t mean you can’t also think outside of the box about how to learn more about safety, and have a positive effect on others at the work site.

Every month there is safety training hosted by the Employee Safety Association on a variety of health and safety topics. A safety hero attends these because they know it is important, not just be-cause they are required. You could even suggest a particular topic that you would like presented. (Please contact the safety office with your suggestions!)

Another way to be involved is the Annual Safety Conference, set for May 31, 2012. At the conference, you will be able to choose from 30 different safety presentations, and visit 50+ exhibitors.

Be a safety hero and a safety leader anywhere you are, whether in the office or out in the field! As-sist in changing the safety culture of the department by taking owner-ship of your own safety, and being a team player in all aspects of safety. And always be thinking - “Do I have what it takes to be a Safety Hero?!”

A


Annual Safety ConferenceMay 31, 2012

Save the Date!


eventsBY SHANNON WISNER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

THE NEW ANNUAL REPORT SHOWCASES OUR ACHIEVEMENTS WITH STYLE

I n order to provide accountability for our operations and to meet our City’s

reporting requirements, PWD released an Annual Report covering fiscal year 2011; ranging from October 1, 2010 to Septem-ber 30, 2011. The report is organized by our diverse programs and broken up into three funds under which we operate; the Capi-tal Projects Management Fund, the Child Safety Fund, and the Transportation Fund. Enclosed are informative and eye-catching graphics highlighting how monies in these funds are used and how our programs fall into each respective fund. The report also showcases some impressive statistics about PWD and its programs while pictorially il-lustrating many of our projects for a visual reference of our accomplishments. If you haven’t had a chance to view the annual report, it can be found by clicking the icon on our main page located here: http://www.austintexas.gov/department/public-works.

Public Works Connects You...All Around Austin!Public Works builds our city’s future and celebrates our successes with PWD staff and events all around town.

public worksconnects youpublic worksconnects youall around austinall around austin

Annual Report2011

of funds and programs

THE BICYCLE AMBASSADOR PROGRAM AIMS TO FUSE ROADWAY RELATIONSHIPS The driver-cyclist relationship can sometimes be a delicate one, which is one of the reasons PWD’s Neighborhood Con-nectivity Division is heading up a Bicycle Ambassador Program. As one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the nation, this pro-gram will aim to encourage the use of the

great infrastructure that is in place in our city. These ambassadors will volunteer in community outreach, school education, and law enforcement – they will even be able to write warnings when it comes to breaking bike laws! Sara Krause recently spoke about the program on KVUE, stating, “Whether it’s someone who drives a car or rides a bike, we all have rights and responsibilities on the roadway. Sometimes there’s friction, unfor-tunately, but we think things are in a really

good place for Austin right now, and we’re looking forward to continuing that positive trend.” The NCD-housed program will be looking for a dozen dedicated volunteers to serve for one-year terms, and represents a great way that PWD is helping to showcase heroes in our community.


PWD GETS ‘TICKETS TO THE GUN SHOW’ AT THE PARD CARD GRAND OPENING

On January 13th, Givens Recreation Center rolled out the red carpet to welcome PWD employees to the center to debut the new state-of-the-art weight room facilities. Healthy Connections was in attendance as

well to hand out information about getting fit. Nourishing refreshments were provided as well as on-site registration, tours, and door prizes! PWD and ATD employees who sign up will receive a PARD CARD, and then they can hit one of the five participating Rec Center gyms nearest them during the center’s normal operating hours! For more information, contact the Human Resources office.

CHILD SAFETY’S BOW WOW PROGRAM GAINS MOMENTUM

The Bike on Wednesday, Walk on Wednesday (BOW WOW) program has gone so well this year that the Child Safety Pro-gram has booked 13 elementary schools for the 2012 – 2013 school year! They have had the opportunity to sponsor BOW WOW at various Elemen-tary Schools includ-ing Campbell, Galindo, Gullett, Odom, Barbara Jordan, St. Elmo, Sun-set Valley, Widen, and Williams. Still to come are Allison Elementary in March and Sanchez Elementary in April. At each of these campus-es, the Child Safety Pro-

gram awarded one girl’s bike and one boy’s bike, plus a helmet and lamp for each bike! They also awarded 10 pedometers for stu-dents who walked or biked to school for four Wednesdays. The drawing for the awards is held at the school’s assembly the week after the last Wednesday of the initiative. This has proved to be a very popular and fun way to encourage active transportation for stu-dents!

Adriana Vasquez of Widen Elementary School poses for a picture after winning a bike!

WHERE:Lady Bird Lake- Hike and Bike Trailmeet near parking lot on the west side of the RBJ building (15 Waller St.) at 12 PM (noon)

RIDES WILL:Be for all experience levels including complete beginners.

Stay together and make occasional stops to regroup if necessary.

Be open to all City of Austin employees.

Bikes should be in good mechanical condition, ready to ride. (Skinny tires not recommended.)

Helmets are mandatory for all riders.

Required:

FREE Austin Bike Map to all who attend.

If you are interested, please contact:Doug Ballew

[email protected] 512-972-5120

divisionsBY DIANNA ROBLES CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Listening to the Workforce:Establishing Base PayThe Human Resources Division sheds a little light on how your pay is determined using the zoning system.

D zonE I (Entry)

zonE II (InTERMEDIATE)zonE III (ADvAncED) zonE Iv (AccoMpLIShED)

In ADDITIon, ThE SALARy RAngE IS SEgMEnTED InTo zonES AS foLLowS:

Between 0 and 4 years of relevant experience above minimum quali-fications.

Between 4+ and 7 years of relevant experience above minimum qualifications.

Between 7+ and 10 years of relevant experience above minimum qualifications.

10+ years of relevant experience above minimum qualifications (Zone IV is also known as the midpoint).

Rates of pay are based on an individual’s educational credentials and years of relevant work experience above and beyond the minimum qualifications of the position. Each job title has established education and years of relevant experience required. The “zoning process” is determined by identifying the “zone” an individual qualifies for based on the number of relevant years of experience above minimum qualifications.

ExAMpLEJohn Doe is promoted through to an

Administrative Specialist. Mr. Doe has 16 years of relevant experience and a High School Diploma.

Minimum Qualifications for an Ad-ministrative Specialist: Graduation from an accredited four year college or univer-sity with major coursework in Business or Public Administration or related field, plus four (4) years of experience in a pro-fessional/administrative capacity. Any combination of education and/or work experience will substitute for minimum qualifications.

For additional information about base pay, you may contact the Human Resources Office at 512-974-7041.

id you hear… the Public Works De-partment had over 175 employees

complete the annual Listening to the Workforce (LTW) Survey for 2011? The survey provides an opportunity for em-ployees to voice their opinions on com-munications, ethics, safety, pay and ben-efits, and training opportunities offered by the City and the Department. Survey results for Public Works doubled from 93 responses received in 2010 to 189 in 2011!

In view of the LTW results, over 80% of the respondents have a strong commit-ment to the City of Austin as an employer and 83% of the department employees feel Public Works provides quality ser-vices. While the Department fares better than the City in the areas of Safety and Employee Recognition, there are a few areas the Department Management Team

would like to focus on further. For this is-sue, we will discuss the category of Pay & Benefits, specifically, the City’s process for Establishing Base Pay (or hourly rates).

Establishing hourly rates for employ-ees most commonly occurs as a result of a

competitive hire & selection process, but can also occur as a result of a promotion or reclassification. Positions in the City of Austin typically have an associated salary range with defined minimum, midpoint and maximum hourly rates.

zonE cALcuLATIon:John Doe, Administrative Specialist

16.00

EDucATIon(SubTRAcTIon, If ExpERIEncE In LIEu of EDucATIon)

4.00yEARS/MonThSRELATED ExpERIEncE:

yEARS of ExpERIEncEREquIRED (SubTRAcTIon)

4.00

ToTAL ExpERIEncE/EDucATIon (bEyonD MInIMuM quALIfIcATIonS)

8.00

zonE quALIfIED (CIRCLE):

zonE I(0-4)

zonE II(4-7)

zonE III(7-10)

zonE Iv(10+)

job TITLE:

zonE I(0-4 yEARSExpERIEncE) MAx

$15.01AdministrativeSpecialist

$16.26 $17.51 $18.76 $23.64

zonE II(4-7 yEARSExpERIEncE)

zonE III(7-10 yEARSExpERIEncE)

zonE Iv(10+ yEARSExpERIEncE)

Employee pay is established respective of the zone for which he or she qualifies for. In this case the employee pay rate falls in Zone III which is $17.51 up to $18.75. Other considerations may be made by the hiring manager when establishing base pay to include internal equity or pay compression between the employee and supervisor of the position. For promotions, in the event the employee is at a higher rate than the zone he/she qualifies for, any increase will be limited to no more than 5%. Also, no employee will be placed below the minimum or beyond the maximum of the pay grade.


divisionsBY VERA LABRIOLA CONTRIBUTING WRITER

A lexa Locklear’s group is busy with the Waller Creek Tunnel and sev-

eral other projects. They are one of the Rio Grande groups overseen by the Field En-gineer Valerie Dickens. Even though this group’s specialty is tunnel inspection, Alexa often says that she has the best in-spectors in the division who can tackle any kind of inspection work. Some of the projects this group inspects are quite com-plex and to get things done, CIP inspectors need to work with other divisions within Public Works and with departments like Austin Transportation, Watershed Protec-tion, Small and Minority Business Resourc-es, or Austin Water Utility. Alexa specifical-ly mentioned Ayman Benyamin of Austin Water Utility and Jon Thompson of Project Management Division, who have been helping her group to get the job done. To be able to inspect tunnels, the inspectors have to have some knowledge of geology, attend the Confined Space Training, and use respirators. Since there is limited space,


When it comes to rehabilitating old infrastructure, CIPID has experts on the job, making sure it is done right!

cIp Inspection: behind the Scenes

From left to right: Patti Moreno, Jess Knox, Alexa Locklear, Kevin Jones, Valerie Dickens, Tony Lopez, Chip Hirsch, and Sidney Hanson

they can’t be claustrophobic or afraid of the dark. The environment is damp and muddy, so rubber steel toe boots are a must. However, according to the Lead In-spector Kevin Jones, working in a tunnel has some advantages—it does not rain there and it does not get too hot, so there is no need to worry about the weather.The Supervisor, Alexa Locklear, is strong on anything related to soils due to her background in geotechnical testing. She came to CIPID in 1999 as an inspec-tor and worked her way up to a supervi-sory position. As an inspector, she was able to handle even the most complex projects, like the South 1st Street Re-construction. Alexa is the kind of leader with a big heart—engaged in her com-munity—the type of person that never stops. She helps with fundraisers and gets involved in animal rescue. On top of that, she is also the president of the Dale Vol-unteer Fire Department. Alexa likes to be around people and is always ready to help

wherever needed. To be environmentally respon-sible, she commutes to work in her small hybrid car. Even though she is really busy, she still finds time for her two kids, three dogs, and several other animals. When she does get some free time, she likes to hunt or deep sea fish. How is that for a hero?The Lead Inspector, Kev-in Jones, is the backbone of this group. According to his supervisor Alexa, Kevin keeps everybody in line (including her) and if it wasn’t for him, things would not get done. He is a retired veteran; for 20 years, he served as a Bridge Specialist for the Army Combat Engineers. How does one build bridges in combat zones? “Really fast,” says Kevin.

He inspects the Waller Creek Tunnel Proj-ect, a 5,600 ft diversion tunnel that will relieve storm water overflow from Waller Creek. He describes himself as a family guy who loves to have fun with his eight grandchildren. He also enjoys work-ing with cars and loves woodwork—he can even make big pieces of furniture!

Sidney Hanson, a Vietnam War veteran, is currently finishing his work on the Downtown Tunnel and, at the same time, works as a night inspector at the Waller Creek Tunnel Project. He has been in the construction business all his life and has over 35 years of construction experi-ence. He worked for underground utilities, paving, and tunneling companies. Sidney used to be on a Mopar Racing team and still likes restoring classic muscle cars, es-pecially Chrysler. He is known for his big heart and caring personality. Sidney loves antiques and has an interest in farming.

Patti Moreno came to CIPID from TxDOT and besides roadway inspec-


A rarely-seen view from inside the Waller Creek Tunnel.

from bridge construction and has done some surveying work as well. Patti has inspected the Bull Creek Low Water Cross-ing, the Waller Creek Pedestrian Bridge, and the Blunn Creek Longbow Storm Drain Improvements Project. Her new-est project is Miscellaneous Waterline Improvements 2009-2010. Besides being a CIP Inspector, she is also a dog trainer and participates in animal rescue. Patti likes to go to the gym anytime she gets a chance, loves to play softball, and enjoys spending time with her husband and five pit bulls that, as she says, are her heart.

Ernest “Chip” Hirsch, currently working on the Tillery Strom Drain Out-fall Stabilization Project, is an inspector known to be able to please even the most demanding clients. He has been with our division for about seven years and in the past he has worked as an inspec-tor for the City of Houston. Chip was also employed by some private engineering companies and has 25 years of experience

in the rehabilitation of sewer systems in numerous municipal utility districts in the southern U.S. Chip, often teased for his love of peanut butter, is an outdoors-man. He adores his four grandkids and loves to take them fishing, camping, and boating. He owns a cabin in East Texas and goes there any time he gets a chance.

Tony Lopez has an extensive background in concrete inspection. Be-fore coming to the City of Austin, he worked for ten years as a yard foreman for Gifford-Hill Pipe Division and he also did construction materials testing for anoth-er ten years. At this time, he juggles four projects: Manchaca Water line, SH 71 West Water Line Relocation, Pfluger Bridge Ex-tension, and William Cannon Bridge over Onion Creek Phase 2. These projects con-sist of testing and inspecting concrete, soils, asphalt, rebar, water, and wastewa-ter, as well as pier drilling and environ-mental and traffic control observation. To-gether with his wife, Tony has participated

in the Tour de Cure from San Antonio to Austin to raise funds for diabetes research. He also likes spending time with his fam-ily, especially his first granddaughter.

Jess Knox started in our division a long time ago and came back in 2010. He has been inspecting projects for munici-pal organizations for over fourteen years. Besides the City of Austin, he previously worked as an inspector for the City of Bry-an. Jess is the inspector on the Rio Grande from MLK to 24th Street Reconstruction and Utility Adjustments Project. This proj-ect involves streetscape improvements, so with new sidewalks, citizens will also get to enjoy new trees and benches. Jess, fond of country life, enjoys taking care of his live-stock, horseback riding, team roping, and he is an avid hunter as well. He is a family person and loves spending time with his wife, son, and his three month old baby girl. When time allows, Jess likes getting together with his dad and three brothers.

SuperheroesPWD

Kick Asphalt!

What does it mean to be a 'hero'? We asked, you answered... and it turns out that you don't need the super powers of your favorite comic book character to be considered a 'hero'.

e all have at least one, many of us have multiple. They are all around us, rarely revealing their true powers, so they may go unrecognized. You see them on

television; you hear about them on the news and talk about them over lunch with your friends. A select few are featured in internet stories, but millions walk quietly among us, never expecting praise or recognition, and would likely be surprised to know that they belong in this category. You may even belong to this group, and not even know it. Heroes.

W

WhAT mAKES A hERo?

Some of the more well-known he-roes might include people like Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Jane Goodall, Abraham Lincoln, and more. Other heroes that are known world-wide are nameless. Robin Camp, Project Man-ager, remembers one in particular whose image is seared into the minds of so many who witnessed the events on Tiananmen Square unfold on television on June 5, 1989. “This incident occurred while I was


in Architecture School. That summer, I was in residence at the Winedale Program in Round Top, Texas. We were in a bunkhouse out in the country, measuring and docu-menting the Cotton Gin in Burton, TX. Our TV barely picked up any picture, mostly just grainy snow; and we worked from sunrise until dark on our project. This was the only news that broke through our re-treat. It is still a moving image of bravery.”

“Tank Man” taken by Jeff Widener of the Associ-ated Press, June 5, 1989.

Beginning in April, 1989, largely student-run demonstrations for con-tinued economic reform, freedom of the press and liberalization of the People’s Republic of China were oc-curring. Mass gatherings and pro-tests were non-violent until June 4. As the People’s Liberation Army pro-ceeded through the City to Tianan-men Square, they fired through the crowds of civilian protestors. The next day a single man stood directly in the path of approaching tanks in silent, non-violent protest. He held two shopping bags, one in each hand. The tanks stopped and the man ges-tured to the tanks with his bags. The lead tank tried to go around the man and not crush him but he repeatedly stepped in front of the tanks to stop their progress. Eventu-ally the tanks stopped their engines.

You don’t have to stand in front of approaching tanks to be a hero, though! ESD employee Luciano Tamayo gathered some thoughts from his division. They view a hero this way: “A real hero or a great leader has respect, honesty, humility, and sincerity to others and to themselves. They put others before themselves and don’t take credit for other’s work. They know how to listen and do un-selfish acts for others. They don’t play games; they act on what they say, are reliable and accept the truth. They are leaders you can rely on to lead and teach by example. A good leader is one who can encourage oth-ers to voluntarily do the right thing.”

You, I and everyone has the ca-pacity to be a hero or leader. What it takes is the willingness to do what is required and the heart that will


inspire you to finish the task. Byrt Reza of ESD recently volunteered at his son Aidan’s school, Primrose of Shady Hollow, during their “Transportation Week”. Using a display board as his main tool, he discussed the step-by-step pro-cess of how a PWD Engineer performs their job in relation to transportation projects. Byrt discussed all aspects, from acquiring the raw survey data, to veri-fying the data, researching, designing, meeting with stakeholders, estimating costs, constructing, etc… in kid’s terms, of course! Byrt was delighted to observe the faces of those little kids in awe of the presentation. By volunteering his time, Byrt was a hero and inspiration to his son, as well as his son’s other classmates.

Often, heroes are leaders in the more traditional, formal sense. Leader-ship is shown in many varying aspects, whether it is in war or peace, religion or politics, building or destruction. In this writer’s eye, the best qualities a leader can possess, along with many others, are “the ability to com-municate with, understand and respect those of whom he is to lead.”

BYrt reza gives a presentation at his son aid-an’s school at primose of shady hollow during their “transportation week”.

respect those of whom he is to lead.” Many employees see Public Works’

institutional leaders as heroes. While being a “hero” is usually seen as some-thing you are or not, being a good leader takes some development. Leaders with Heart include our supervisors. Public Works realizes the importance of hav-ing a strong yet caring supervisor guid-ing each workgroup to success. In short, line-level supervisors make or break an organization! In the hustle and bustle of daily work tasks, it’s easy to slide su-pervisor training onto the back burner.

Everyday heroes at work include those who are looking out for each other and go the extra mile. Sharon Warren considers the idea of a ‘Safety Hero’. “A Safety Hero is someone that is an advo-cate for safety, someone that will go the extra step, above and beyond, on safety issues. They will make sure that hazards are reported and corrected; they will as-sist others in making sure they have what they need in the safety aspect. They think outside the box, and will have a positive affect on safety at the work site. Be a safety hero and a safety leader anywhere you are, whether in the of-fice or out in the field! Assist in chang-ing the safety culture of the department by taking ownership of your own safety, and being a team play-er in all aspects of safety.”

Esther Crawford in Street and Bridge says, “Sometimes we are heroes and don’t even realize it. A hero is someone who leads by example, whether it is an adult, teenager, or child.

A hero is someone who always seems to put others before themselves, and no matter how hard a deci-sion or situation may be. Heroes will take themselves out of the box and analyze a problem from all angles to present a positive outcome. We aren’t able to please all people all the time, or have a solution to every problem, mis-understanding, or debate, but somehow

when dealing with heroes, the end result comes out to ‘never making a perma-nent decision for a temporary problem.’”

Heroes are close to home too. It doesn’t take long to think about people in your life who you look up to for so many reasons – and who show incredible strength and courage. Kit Johnson, PWD Architect says, “A hero is somebody who does the right thing regardless of the cost; be it physical, emotional, financial or po-litical harm. Real heroes fear just like the rest of us, but they muster the character to rise above their fear and do what needs to be done. I think about the guys on the United Airlines flight that attempted to take control and purposely crashed the plane to save others during the attacks of September 11, or my son who befriends the one kid no one else will play with.

Rosa Parks was born 99 years ago. This little lady

had nothing to gain in

r e f u s i n g to stand up and m o v e ,

yet her small action prompted a genera-tion to stand up against racial inequality. That’s a hero. My wife is the biggest hero I personally know. From pushing out ba-bies to confronting friends with truth, I’ve seen her fear, and I I’ve seen her push past her fear and do what has to be done.“

Public Works also continues to de-velop heroes internally. Sara Hartley shares that in February, supervisors will break away from their daily routines and attend one of three seminars at the Mexi-can American Cultural Center. For this event, Public Works is proud to welcome Dr. Troy L. Coleman, Ph.D. to Austin for his Mastering Leadership Effectiveness Seminar. Dr. Coleman will provide helpful information for supervisors and create a forum to learn from one another. By the time you read this Street Talk, supervi-sors will have attended their sessions. We hope to bring you pictures and “les-sons learned” reports for the next edition.

Stop for a moment and look at a person near you. That person is prob-ably a hero to someone in his or her life. We each have greatness within us. Do

you think you might be a hero to someone else?

Who is a hero to you?


BY SARA KRAUSE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

erhaps no other program better exemplifies the everyday heroes in

our City than the Neighborhood Partner-ing Program. This cost-sharing program allows communities to identify problems and priorities in the context of their so-lutions: a project proposal to the City. Through a willingness to contribute to the project, community groups can seek City funding in what is essentially a city grant program. NPP is unique in that it finds heroes among all of us: community member’s ideas, City staff wanting to pro-vide solutions, or City staff with their own ideas. In each case, it is the motivation to problem solve, improve, or assist that brings out the hero.

Created by the Austin City Coun-cil, the program is intended to build neighborhood-scale projects through a community-initiated application process. There are two types of partnerships: one in which the applicants apply for match-ing grants (Neighborhood Cost Share or NCSP), and a Grant Assistance Program in which the applicants apply for matching funds for external grant opportunities (GAP). In either case, the City stretches its own resources by leveraging those that the community is willing to put in: be it sweat-equity that off-sets maintenance and labor costs, or in-kind professional services, materials, or donated profes-sional services.

p

divisions

Neighborhood Partnering Program: Developing Community HeroesFrom the application process, to award and construction, NPP is helping to bring the big dreams of our community members to fruition.

One of the most frequently asked questions from City staff is “who maintains these projects?” The answer is: the applicants. Community interest in participating in these projects has been tremendous; and the opportunity to turn that interest into real, sustainable infrastructure has been created by NPP!

AppLIcATIon AnD AwARD

Quick OverviewHow the process works

Letter of Intent

Application

COA Staff Scoring

Staff Review for Basic Eligibility

Eligible Projects Invited to Apply

Executive Committee

Review & Award


community Drive and community building: npp heroes in action.

While the project maximum of $150,000 may not seem like a lot in the context of a Public Works initiative, it’s an amount that can have a substantial im-pact in a local community. The story of NPP is best told through its projects, and the people that initiate them

Along the state Cemetery Fence, there is a well-worn so-

cial path between businesses on the North Loop. The Northfield Neighborhood Asso-ciation has previously beautified the path with trees; however, it desires a sidewalk to connect the two adjacent business complexes.

Story:

The City ranks the side-walk as a ‘medium’ prior-

ity, and does not have funding to do the project.

A neighborhood cham-pion proposed NPP to her

association. They have agreed to cost-share with the City to install the sidewalk through NPP.

Solution:

Problem:

The City of Austin obtained a FEMA grant to remove and demolish homes in a floodplain area in the Cherry Creek Neighborhood near Westgate and Stassney.

Story:

Cherry Creek Community meeting. The area has no neighborhood association. 51 residents showed up to learn about NPP.

This small community lost 21 of its neighbors in the

process, and gained a large open space with no planned uses.

WPD project Manager Jorge Morales recognized

an opportunity in the neighbors them-selves. He saw that they wanted to make something good out of their new envi-ronment, and were not only willing, but wanted to work for it. Jorge referred them to the Neighborhood Partnering Program.

The community obtained donated services from a landscape architect and has proposed a great design.

Solution:

Problem:

columns

Michelle Frith profiles two employees that work hard for PWD everyday who you may have never met!

don’t have much to say” was the re-sponse to a request for an interview

with Division Manager Gerald Nation. By the end of the interview, it was extremely hard to know how to keep his story to one page!

G e r -ald is a laid-back man with quite a story to tell. He was raised in the coun-try outside of Garland, Texas with his sister

Diane. His dad, a WWII Marine, and his mom were loving parents and his mother had a great sense of humor, both traits which were clearly passed on to Gerald. Gerald reminisces about being a fifth generation Texan. He recalled the day his high-school Algebra class was told Presi-dent Kennedy had been assassinated in Dallas. The Civil Rights movement and integration of schools took place in this same period, but it really had “little impact because our daily lives were already inte-

“I

NEIGHBOR Gerald Nation

DIVISION Street and Bridge Operations

TITLEDivision Manager

grated and everyone was friendly”. Gerald’s great-great aunt was Car-rie Nation, a late 1800’s radical suf-fragette and supporter of the tem-perance movement. She is most commonly known for promoting her viewpoint through entering an alcohol-serving establishment and attacking the bar with a hatchet!

Gerald met his wife Ginny on a blind date. He describes her as his very best friend and better half. “She is the funniest woman I have ever met. We are insepa-rable.” His respect and deep love for Ginny are pervasive in our conversation. She re-fers to him as “Yuk-Yuk boy” and he calls her “Slick”. The pair has been married for 35 years and has raised two sons. Aaron is a federal marshal in Oklahoma City who served in Desert Storm and John is an at-torney and marathoner who is married and lives in Houston. Aaron has a son AJ, who is 7 years old. After their children left home, Gerald and Ginny found that they had grown apart as so many couples do. Instead of separating, they decided to date each other again – and their mar-riage is now stronger than ever!

Gerald began working for General Telephone in 1968 as a cable splicer’s helper and promoted through the ranks to become a Service Facility Manager. In 1985, Gerald left GTE and joined Northern Telecom as Director of Sales and Market-ing. He held other positions including Director of Engineering and Director of Training and Development. His 15 years at Nortel required constant international travel. His Division of Nortel was sold to

Global Knowledge, where Gerald became an executive Vice-President. Gerald also simultaneously owned a construction business. He was laid-off from GK in 2005 and his construction business went un-der during the housing crisis of 2007 and 2008. He was hired at AWU in 2009 and joined Public Works in November 2010.

Gerald feels this job has changed his life. “I am very impressed with Howard’s and Robert’s vision in trying new things and getting our four SBO divisions to work together. I’m the luckiest manager in the City! Our employees work hard and the direction we are going is fantastic! We were working in silos and now we’re migrating to one cross-functional group with multi-talents and increased efficien-cies. I can honestly say there is not one single person I have met in Public Works that I don’t like”.

Success came because “I worked and studied harder than others. I never re-fused a work challenge.” He advises others to “work hard, follow the rules and when you get an opportunity to learn anything, TAKE IT!” Gerald said that he has made and lost a fortune. What did he learn? “I learned what was really important in this short life. I learned family is the founda-tion and laughter is the key to getting through the day”.

Gerald and Ginny are looking for-ward to retirement someday and intend to travel the U.S. in a motor home. Gerald’s story of the ability to create a wonderful life despite hardship is an American story. And he thought he had “Nothing much to say”…PLEASE!

BY MICHELLE FRITH CHIEF REPORTER

GeraldNation


How Well Do You Know Your Neighbor?

hannon Wisner’s smile is always bright, always quick, and always

genuine. She laughs a lot, and makes you want to get to know her better. Shannon is an integral part of the Public Works Of-fice of the Director (OOD) and her story is as surprising and fun as her smile.

Shannon says she “grew up every-where”; her father worked in the hotel industry and transferred around the coun-try, sparking a great love of travel and

natural cu-riosity. Not surprisingly, Shannon has a bag packed at all times! She is the el-dest of two. Her young-er brother Kevin works at the Gap and is very

independent. Shannon’s “touchstone is Austin” - she just seems to keep ending up here. She received a degree in Pho-tography and a minor Anthropology at Texas State University. Since her family is so spread out, Shannon considers her core group of friends her ‘family’ in Austin.

Among her favorite travels Shannon recounts an amazing story about spend-ing three weeks in the Lacandon Forest in the Chiapas Province of Mexico. Arriv-ing accidentally two days early in Tabasco, Mexico, she was on her own in the city. She kept her cool, met her guide at the appointed time and the trip went on as planned, to the great relief of her mom! Shannon studied primates for a Behavioral Ecology credit and Maya Religious studies while there. She stayed with a Mayan fam-ily in a very remote part of the forest and got to “hang out with howler monkeys”. Not much different than her current job!

Love of travel has taken Shannon many places, including Rome, Venice and Florence to study Photography and Art History. She was also able to attend one semester at Flagstaff, Arizona in a National Student Exchange program and traveled all throughout Thailand for a photography

course. Most recently, Shannon chose to

go to Prague, Czech Republic to teach English to students of all ages. Living in Prague allowed her to travel to France, Ita-ly, Austria, Germany, and Slovakia, among others. While there, she talked with the older generation about what it was like to live in a Communist country. Culturally the Czechs are different from Americans in that while being very polite, they don’t often engage in small talk. She believes that one of the best parts of the country is the public transportation system. She lived in the Žižkov area where trams leave every 3-4 minutes. Travel is also sped up with the usage of subways, trains and bus-es. During the Communist era, the state wanted to move people quickly and effi-ciently, so they built a great public trans-portation system. There were obvious negatives as well, like a high level of para-noia, inadequate food, lack of information and being pushed to join the Communist Party. This experience has helped Shannon to really appre-ciate the freedoms and privileges of our country.

Shannon returned to Austin and joined Public Works in October, 2010 to quickly become an invaluable employee helping with Recom-mendations for Council Action (RCA’s) and work-ing on communication aspects of the Office of the Director like Citizen Assistance Forms, Public Information Requests, department photogra-phy, assisting at events and more. She says, “I really like how diverse our organization is and I really enjoy establish-ing positive relationships and being able to help people. Best of all is that the Office of the Direc-

tor is a fun, laid-back but hard-working group. We’re small but we’re really good and work closely together.” She adds, “It’s sometimes uncomfortable that some people perceive the OOD staff as ‘stuck-up’ or ‘intense’, but everyone is really gen-uine and concerned about the public. We all work really hard and each member of the team has their own unique sense of humor.”

Shannon’s biggest interests are current events and comparing and con-trasting diverse cultures. She feels that it should be mandatory for every person to be able to travel to fully understand that we are not the center of the world. Texas in particular stands out to Shannon for the “huge pride, almost like being its own country”. Shannon’s view of the world is much larger than what she can see through a photo lens. Maybe that’s what makes her smile so brightly.

NEIGHBOR Shannon Wisner

DIVISION Office of the Director

TITLEProgram Coordinator

S ShannonWisner

divisionsBY JULIE RICHEY CONTRIBUTING WRITER

I n October 2010, Public Works began work on the 32nd Street Reconstruc-

tion Project. The project, from Duval Street to Red River Street in Central Austin, includ-ed upgrades and replacements to water, wastewater, and storm drain systems, full reconstruction of the roadway, completion and upgrades to the sidewalks, and mobility improvements like a dedi-cated left turn lane at Red River and bike lanes along the entire project.

Led by Project Manager Ro-hini Kumarage, and with the help of City community outreach con-sultant Concept Development, & Planning, the project team started working much sooner than the con-struction start! The team contacted neighborhood associations, busi-nesses, and residents in the area to inform them of the project plans and to gather feedback on how to reduce the project’s impact on them. Ro-hini also incorporated a very robust out-reach plan to keep the neighborhood


Despite the many issues that this busy street presented, the project team took the challenge head-on with a fantastic outcome.

Success of the 32nd Street Reconstruction project is Shared by All

informed throughout the project. In the sixteen months on the project, the team sent over 30 status updates via email, and logged over 460 individual or group com-munication instances with neighbors!

One neighbor, Mr. Tim Eakin (when requesting that a street name plaque be

preserved), let the team know that Liberty Street used to be named Sidon Street for a gentleman who purchased the land in the

late 1800s. The name changed to Liberty Street after WWII, and the plaque was em-bedded in the curb to identify its original name. Other curb plaques on the cross streets were found and saved to be reaf-fixed upon completion of the project. This is one of those great opportunities PWD

got to be a neighborhood (history) hero!Much more needed to be accom-

modated for neighbors. There is both an

Thank you so very much for all you did to complete this project. The crew was superb!! They did a remarkable job to fix and repair this old, complex, torn up street. They worked long and exhausting hours in the worst heat wave in history. I am grateful for all the time and effort that was given for months and handled with kid-glove treatment. Staff bent over backwards to accommodate us. Gracias. -Linda Guerrero, Austin Resident ”

“So how Do wE Know ThAT ThIS TEAM wAS “hERoIc?” ThE RESIDEnTS TELL uS how ThEy fEEL AbouT ThE pRojEcT now ThAT IT IS coMpLETE:

elementary school and a major hospital in one block, and within the project limits there is a graduate school campus, resi-dential homes, and commercial buildings, all of which had conflicting preferences for work hours and driveway access. Throw in the school traffic twice a day, heavy UT stu-dent traffic, an environmentally sensitive creek, ambulances, cyclists and pedestri-ans - all on a two-lane road - well, you’ve got some serious issues to contend with here!

Inevitably utility conflicts and tem-peramental nature of utility infrastruc-ture that is 70+ years old equaled some unexpected and unavoidable delays, as did addition of project scope, prompt-ing understandable frustration from the residents and businesses. But through it all, Rohini’s leadership, along with CIP In-spector Albert Ramirez handling so many tasks and details, made for a couple of PWD heroes. Frequent communications to the neighbors by CD&P, and the excep-tional problem solving of both McLean Construction (contractor) and LOC (design engineer) also meant the project came through successfully and with more im-provements than originally planned! The new street and utilities were substantially complete and open by Christmas 2011.

All that remained was to replace landscaping within the right-of-way, which was delayed due to the drought and City water restrictions. But… the unfortunate drought conditions have actu-ally yielded some more “heroic” thought. While contemplating logistics of closing out the job without the landscap-ing, and after visiting with neighbors about it, Rohini saw an op-portunity for the City to develop a plan to plant drought toler-ant vegetation in the right-of-way which can

withstand drought and also set a great example for sustainable plantings along our community streets. She set the wheels in motion and began visit-ing with the other departments within the City and simultaneously surveyed the property owners along the project for their feedback and preference. Over-whelmingly the residents have said “YES!”

The team is currently putting to-

gether landscape designs for the right-of-way at those properties whose owners expressed interest in this opportunity. Plans will be shared with property owners, and with cooperation from the weather, we hope to have drought tolerant land-scaping in this spring - perhaps creat-ing a new sustainable element in street reconstruction planning and design!

BY CLAYTON CRAIG CONTRIBUTING WRITER

divisions

New Paving Equipment Arrives at Street and BridgeChange is in the air… and more importantly, on the road over at the Street and Bridge Pavement Operations Division.

j anuary 31, 2012 marked a distinct change over at the Harold Court facil-

ity. The unveiling of the new asphalt pav-ing machine that was funded in the Fiscal Year 2012 Budget replaced their antiquated 12-year-old paving machine. The crew was getting trained that day and seemed excited by the anticipation of the new equipment. The crew will be able to take advantage of the machine’s increased reliability and en-hanced leveling controls.

The new machine was assembled at Vogele’s Ludwigshafen, Germany, which is a new state-of-the-art factory, and anyone who has visited Germany will agree that they definitely have their roadways down to

a science! The Vogele Vision Model 5200-2 is a 10-foot rubber track paver that is well equipped with a Carlson electrically heat-ed screed, automatic lubrication system, sonic dual grade and slope controls and xenon lights that include a balloon light kit for night time paving. The Vision machines come with ErgoPlus – an innovative and easy to learn operating concept that pro-vides for ergonomic working conditions and safety at work. Three days of training were conducted by the vendor, Cooper Equipment and the Manufactures’ Region-al Representative.

The new paving machine made its maiden voyage over near Gunter and

Abate street. The crew members relayed that the process was slow-going, but they were getting the hang of it. The machine has electronic controls, and some were con-cerned that they wouldn’t be able to modify in the same way that was allowed by the old machine, but the trainer explained that modification was possible.

Also, as part of the ongoing street resurfacing program, the Pavement Op-erations Division has also received a small asphalt milling machine. The Wirtgen W 60 cold milling machine has a maximum mill-ing width of 24 inches and a maximum depth of 12 inches. It will be used for cut-ting trenches of different widths and depths, asphalt tie-in jobs, partial pavement repairs, etc, that are currently performed by jack hammers. Training was conducted on Janu-ary 10, and the machine is expected be in full service by the end of March.

Both units continue the City‘s commit-ments to providing a high quality and cost efficient street resurfacing product.

You can �nd the Health Assessment Welcome Kit on the Health Assessment section of our website at http://cityspace.ci.austin.tx.us/services/healthyconnections

DATE TIME LOCATIONWednesday January 18 7:30 am – 1:00 pm Glen Bell Service Center

Tom Medders Training Room3907 S. Industrial Drive

Thursday January 19 7:00 am – 1:00 pm Kramer Lane Service CenterBuilding E Break Room2526 Kramer Lane

Tuesday February 14 6:00 am – 12:00 pm Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management FacilityAdministration Building Auditorium2210 South FM 973

Tuesday February 14Parking is limited at this event

5:30 am – 9:00 am and1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Kenneth Gardner Service CenterAuditorium Room 1054108 Todd Lane

Wednesday February 15Parking is limited at this event

5:30 am – 9:00 am and1:00 pm – 4:00 pm

Kenneth Gardner Service CenterAuditorium Room 1054108 Todd Lane

Thursday February 16 6:00 am – 3:30 pm Rutherford CampusBuilding 1 Cafeteria1520 Rutherford Lane

Wednesday March 7 6:30 am – 12:00 pm St. Elmo Street and BridgeLarge Conference Room4411 Meinardus

Thursday March 8 6:30 am – 3:00 pm Learning and Research Center (LRC)2800 Spirit of Texas Drive

Tuesday March 13 7:30 am – 1:00 pm Waller Creek CenterRoom 104625 E 10th Street

Wednesday April 18 7:00 am – 4:00 pm Palmer Events Center900 Barton Springs Road

Additional events will be scheduled for May to December

The welcome kit contains everything you need to get started:

1. Health Assessment Schedule2. Screening sign-up instructions and What to Bring. 3. Completing the Online Health Assessment4. How to earn ADL5. Other information about HealthyConnections. If you have questions, please reach out to HealthyConnections sta� members:

Contact us: [email protected] Or call 974-3284 and ask to speak with a Wellness Consultant

Read through the kit for detailed information and then sign-up for the Health Screening event that works best for you. To register, go to http://www.onsitehd.com/scheduler and log in using the username wellnesschoices and the password healthyaustin (details are in the Welcome Kit).

WELCOME TO WELLNESS...

Please remember to always receive your supervisor/ manager’s approval before attending any training, special event, or wellness screening.


n a sunny February day, Shannon Wisner and I loaded up with Bat-

talion Chief of Special Operations Palmer Buck to go on a ride with the Austin Fire Department. Along the way we learned a ton about their operations, got to play on some equipment - and even saw a camel! (Yes. You read that right - a camel.)

We wanted to tag along on what is commonly referred to in the public safety departments as a “ride-out.” And ride out we did - with sirens wailing and lights flashing, we got to respond to a few calls that afternoon. Luckily, there were no ma-jor incidents, but we had a great time un-derstanding more about how they work their calls.

We visited two awesome stations. Station 1 is the original Austin downtown station. Special Operations have some of their equipment and staff there, like the swift water rescue boats that save people from the lake or flood waters. After seeing an impressive firefighter come down the

o

guest columnBY SARA HARTLEY EDITOR IN CHIEF

They go speeeding down our streets every day to assist people in need, and PWD is there to help where we can!

True heroes,great partners!

fire pole upside down, we dressed Shannon up in full gear and made her run. It seemed appropriate at the time! When in Rome…

Then we headed out on calls for a while, talked with Palmer about how our two de-partments work together, and seriously saw a camel (Bactri-an, not dromedary) at the in-tersection of 24th and Lamar. We were NOT expecting that to be the most exciting part of the ride-out!

It may not seem to folks that we have a lot in common with the fire department, or have much reason to partner with them, but out in the field it is a different story.

With the recent tornado, PWD got the chance to work with AFD in a very real way. Often we come in after the disaster to assist in the recov-ery for citizens. Sometimes that means clearing the way for firefighters to finish their jobs, and sometimes it is re-storing the damaged streets and cleaning up the right-of-way so that life can return to normal for our neighborhoods after a storm.


Palmer had this to say about our crews, “They were great right after that recent storm. The tornado really piled up the debris and damage along that mile stretch. Your guys were out there clean-ing up as soon as they could. It really helps us to do our jobs.”

There are other ways we help make sure that AFD makes it safely and quickly to calls. One is how we maintain our road-ways. Street and Bridge Operations is working to keep our roads in good condi-tion; not just for a nice ride for cars, but so that our public safety groups can safely make it along the route without running into harm. We also communicate closely with them regarding construction and road closures that could affect their routes from the stations to an emergency.

Palmer knew about several of our projects and how they affect operations. He is even working on a project to make sure the fire department knows where certain new (and old) infrastructure is within the city, like tunnels. Being able to follow our projects and map what our assets are is important in their emergency operations.

I won’t lie - it wasn’t just about gath-ering information on a fellow depart-ment. Although we learned a lot, the fun of whizzing through traffic and playing on rigs, learning what a “TIC” is, and getting an awesome home-cooked fajita meal at the end of day with the firefighters from Station 14 - well that was way more fun than these reporters should have on the job!

Palmer Buck leads the way as we tour Fire Station 1.

What I look like through the use of a Thermal Imaging Camera (TIC).

BY GERALD NATION CONTRIBUTING WRITER

divisions

Heroes through the Storm


Public Workers assist public safety crews and our citizens after a destructive tornado strikes.

uring the night of January 24, a big storm hit the Austin area. The citizen reports began coming in

at 2:30 am, and on-call staff began work-ing each call as it was reported. Around 3:45 am, Johnny Colvin reported that a tornado had caused damage on Commer-cial Road. Johnny got to work, picking up barricades and working with the Austin Police and Fire Departments to close the road to traffic.

After the sun rose and the public be-gan their daily routines, the calls related to the storm began to really increase. There were numerous potholes created by the water flow, tree limbs were down in the ROW throughout Austin, several drain-age systems were blocked and had to be cleared, some guardrails were damaged or dislodged, and sink-holes had opened. In addition to these minor ROW issues, the storm also caused some major damage.

The bridge to the EOC on Old Manor

D

Road was damaged to the point of closing one-half of the bridge for two days while Street and Bridge crews performed repairs. The damage was unique in this instance. The creek that runs under the bridge had risen to a level that washed out the support of the gabions that supported the abut-ment on the northwest side of the bridge. All of the gabions supporting the abutment fell into the creek leaving the com-

pacted soil under the bridge exposed. The flowing water washed away the soil under the asphalt on the side of the roadway. The SBO crews had to remove the soil that had caved in approximately 18 feet be-low, allowing the crew to lo-cate rock that would provide a base for the new gabions.

The crews placed new gabions using the rock floor as the base and the old ga-bions as support to keep the new gabions from slip-ping while they were being installed. After they were placed, concrete was poured over the gabions to make the structure supporting the abutment both stable and reliable. Brad Kirk and his concrete crew took the lead in this difficult work. Pirouz Moin from SBO Infrastruc-

ture Management was on-site to provide engineering direction, and the districts provided assistance to the concrete crew to complete the repair.

The tornado had also left a big trail of debris on Commercial Road. This required two stages of clean-up. First, a crew was dispatched to pick up the debris, which included everything from tree limbs to AC units. After the road was cleared of large debris, a street cleaning machine fur-nished by Overlay was used to finish the clean-up. This clean-up allowed APD to open the street.

The on-call crews and the mainte-nance personnel worked diligently to cor-rect all of the issues in a timely manner. As usual, the employees of Street and Bridge Operations repaired the damage caused by the storm with minimum impact to our customers – true teamwork to help out our citizens in an emergency!

The high volume of water in Shoal Creek washed out the rock wall on the mobility trail.

Some guard-rails were damaged near drainage areas.


street talk extraUPDATES FROM THE PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT

milestones

JOHNTHOMPSON

Recently joined ESD in December 12, 2011 as a temporary employee. He will be the new ESD CADD Manager who will assist

engineers and designers with any CADD design issues. Prior to his employment with ESD, John worked with Bentley for 5 years and he is an expert both in Microstation and GeoPak. He was born and raised in Houston, Texas and has been living in Austin for 15 years. Welcome aboard John!

ESD:ALExANDRA “ALEx”BOLTON

(Not related to Michael) Is a Human Re-sources Advisor. She is a second genera-tion Austinite, University of Texas grad, and

loves her city! She has a degree in English and Psychology and has over 7 years of Human Resources and Staffing experience. She enjoys traveling and learning about different cultures and actually started her HR career with an International Staffing Agency. She loves helping people and looks forward to a long career with the City of Austin. A fun fact about Alex is that she loves music. You might see her out on the town at live music events or singing her heart out at karaoke!

HRO:

VEENA C. PRABHAKAR

Is the newest member to Public Works’ In-frastructure Management Division within Street & Bridge Operations. Veena is the

Pavement Management Engineer responsible for maintaining the City’s Pavement Management Information System. She started with the City today on November 28th and will office at St. Elmo. Veena brings with her 11 years of experience related to pavement engineering, including structural and condition evaluations, remaining life evaluations and pavement design. She has worked on structural evaluations and design projects pertinent to highways, airfields, and port facilities and has ex-perience with implementing pavement design procedures. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from BMS College of Engineering, India and a Masters in Pavement and Materials Engineering from Texas A&M.

SBO:

ALICIAJACKSON

Is an Accountant Associate in the Shared Services Division working on accounts for Street and Bridge. She has a degree in Busi-

ness with a minor in Computer Science. In the course of her career, she has gained over 15 to 20 years experience working in the Accounting and Finance industry. Prior to joining the Public Works Department, she worked for the City of Austin for 9 ½ to 10 Years. For fun, she enjoys meeting new people, traveling, movies, dinner, bowling, plays, live music, and read-ing. She also enjoys attending church and occasionally going out dancing.

SSD:

who’SThAT?

FRANKREYES

Was born in Bastrop, Texas and gradu-ated from Del Valle High School in 1989. He worked for 3 years with Asphalt Paving

Co. as an Apprentice and learned basic machinery mechanics, and the basics of street paving. He joined the Street and Bridge Division the summer after his graduation and enjoyed 5 years with the City before leaving to pursue the goal of starting his own business. He was successful in this Venture for 17 plus years, and now feels truly blessed to become part of the Public Works Department once again. He became a full time perma-nent employee this past December, working with the Overlay crew, and feels that he has found a great team to be a part of. He feels that his team always does their best to do the job right and with pride. He has been married for 24 years and has 3 girls. He also enjoys running, because it keeps him in shape to keep up with his kids, and his work.

SBO:

ESTHERCRAWFORD

Is originally from Austin and attended Reagan High and WR. Robbins. She has worked at various jobs, including Veolia

Transportation for 7 years and as a subcontractor for Capital Metro. She operated a bus, worked as a dispatcher and as a maintenance clerk. Last summer she attended a job fair, ap-plied and became a temporary employee in PWD Human Resources, working on records management. She then found a temporary truck driver position in overlay and was hired as a Class B on July 5. Public Works gained a major asset when Esther was hired as a permanent employee on November 6, 2011! Esther is currently a junior at National American Univer-sity studying to earn a degree in Organizational Leadership and has a great love for learning anything and everything.

SBO:

STREET AnD bRIDgE conTInuES To ‘MAKE IT hAppEn’BY SHANNON WISNER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

The positive attitude and get-it-done mentality of our Street and Bridge Division never ceases to amaze me. Recently, I received an email from a very distressed employee in Neigh-borhood Housing who was at her wits end with a request that had been passed off through various depart-ments. The request was for mainte-nance of the lighted archway on east 11th street, which was originally sup-posed to be maintained by an outside entity. This agreement no longer ex-ists, and the structure still stands, in need of some serious TLC.

I sent the request to David Magana on February 8th and re-ceived a response literally within an hour saying that this was within our purview. He relayed that he and Sam West would collaborate to get the work scheduled. The next day, Law-rence Alvarez had assessed the needs of the structure. A few days later, Chris Meyer had worked with the property owners who were responsible for the Live Oak trees near the archway, and they agreed to prune the trees before the end of the month. By February 16th, Gerald Nation sent the word that crews were scheduled to repair, clean, and paint the arch by March 9th in time for South by Southwest.

I would like to sincerely thank all who are mentioned here, as well as the division as a whole for work-ing together so effectively. It’s situa-tions like these that make me proud to work in an organization that values a say ‘yes’ attitude - and continues to disprove the bureaucratic stereotype.


milestones continued from pg. 27

awards &recognition

2012 fieldaward winners

fIELD ExcELLEncE AwARDNATHAN WILKESEngineer Associate “C”

In-houSE pRojEcT of ThE yEAR (DISASTER OR EMERGENCY CONSTRUCTION/ REPAIR)

DALTON LANE BRIDGE REPAIR

Texas Public Works Association (TPWA) Winners

In-houSE pRojEcT of ThE yEAR (TRANSPORTATION)

CONGRESS AVENUE OVERLAY & TRANSPORTATION PROJECT

1 2 3

charles felipa, of the Street and Bridge Divi-sion’s Sidewalk Cleaning Crew, recently received his Bachelors in Business Management – congratu-lations Charles! Charles is a mili-tary intelligence veteran, and a military brat who graduated high school in Germany. Look for him to be profiled in a fu-ture issue!

congratulationsgraduateENGINEER OF THE YEAR!

The American Society of Civil En-gineers awarded Howard Lazarus this prestigious award at their an-nual banquet February 24, 2012. The PWD Executive Team and Howard’s peers got to cheer him on and hear a great speech in which he credited those who work in Public Works for making him look good. Aww - gee thanks, Howard!

HOWARDLAZARUS

‘PAT ON THE BACK’ AWARD

For her commendable work and dedication.

VALROCKWELL


Milestones

check thisout!Spanish Customer Care, taught by Max Eby and Susan

Garnett, was designed as a crash course for Public Workers who want to be able to get by in Spanish. From complete

beginners who have never studied Span-ish to those with a basic level of Spanish, this course provides students with basic words and phrases needed to survive ev-eryday situations on the job. And not only do Public Workers take advantage of this class, City employees

Construction Spanish

LOOKING TO HONE YOUR SPANISH SKILLS?

from ARR, CMD and WPD have joined in on the learn-ing experience. Anyone can take this course, so sign up today on TRAIN! ¡Esperemos verle pronto!

Anyone can take this course, so sign up today on TRAIN!

shoutout

ESD ShouT ouT

Aurelia pardo, Child Safe-ty Program South Central Crossing Guard Supervisor,

called 311 before the Christmas Holidays to report a gas smell at the intersection of St. Elmo and South 2nd. The Fire Depart-ment came to the site and said they could not do anything that day, but on January 12, 2012 Texas Gas responded by digging up and replacing the gas line at that inter-section. They stated that they would have the intersection cleared of equipment during drop-off and release times and will also replace the gas line under the St. Elmo’s teacher’s parking lot. Aurelia will receive a Child Safety ‘Caught you Caring’ Award for her actions! Great job Aurelia!

AURELIAPARDO

The teachers of McBee Ele-mentary would like to com-mend garnett hopson on

her job as a Child Safety Supervisor at our

GARNETTHOPSON

campus. She ensures the safety of the stu-dents crossing Kramer behind our school. She goes above and beyond to ensure child safety, reminding all students each time they approach the street to look left and right before they cross. She does not remind them just because she is supposed to; she actually monitors the children and jokes with them if she does not see their heads moving. She reminds students each time not to follow her out as she stops traffic. She blows her whistle each time, holds the stop sign visibly and follows the laws. She encourages students to walk on the sidewalk, not near the street and alerts a teacher on duty if she witnesses any stu-dents engaged in unsafe activities. She of-ten communicates with parents herself or asks a bilingual teacher to translate so she can get her message to all parents. Not only does she do her job professionally, she also goes out of her way to talk to the kids and get to know them. This relation-ship with the students and their parents creates one of respect where all parties feel safer.

chILD SAfETy ShouT ouTS

ESD has been in need of a CADD Manager for quite some time, and as a result,

design software issues needed to be ad-dressed. Heroically, Michael nguyen vol-unteered to step in and resolve whatever CADD issues arose. He recently installed the new Microstation version 8i, (Select Series 2) in all ESD CADD computers. This also includes deleting the older version, running the batch files, and installing/updating the Iplot Organizer that will support the new Microstation version and Geopak. To date, he is still addressing some glitches from this new CADD soft-ware and also coordinating with CTM to make the server works smoothly and cor-

MICHAEL NGUYEN

rectly with the new migration. Thanks for being such a great team player, Michael!

milestones continued from pg. 29


or the last issue’s Where is Shuv L. Reddy, we received a reply that we just couldn’t resist giving an ‘honorable mention’ award to! To the delight of

the Street Talk team, pavement Engineer Ron Koehn submitted this little tidbit of hilarity:

Just Joshin’ with Shuvf

Location 1: Mr. Reddy is at... Machu Picchu in the Cusco Region of Peru: The project is a hillside stabiliza-tion and erosion control terrace that is in the Urubamba River watershed. The terrace project was built about 1450 AD using dry stacked cut lime-stone placed similar to those along Waller Creek south of Cesar Chavez. Mr. Reddy is doing a 562 year warranty check inspection, and probably found minor structural damage that could be related to the original con-struction. However, he also most likely found that the contractor is out of business and the bonding company says the project bond has expired and that most of the defects are due to lack of required maintenance from 1500 to 1915. Mr. Reddy thinks that repairs most likely will be assigned to Street & Bridge South District.

Location 2: Mr. Reddy is at...City Hall lobby at Christmas 2012. The project is an un-permitted residential construction site. Mr. Reddy is inspecting the development’s fence encroachment into the public street ROW.

2

1

Shannon Wisner, Michelle Frith, Jeannette Gilpin, Susan Gar-nett, and Alexa Muraida participate by wearing red for the ‘Go Red for Women’ event. The American Heart Association partners with COA’s Healthy Connections to sponsor a discus-sion on women’s heart health. Following the discussion, par-ticipants walk from City Hall and around Lady Bird Lake to help raise awareness.

Wear Red DayWalk


BY EVA MOORE CONTRIBUTING WRITER

divisions

The Diversity Council wants to hear your ideas, so they conjured up a clever way to make sure your voice gets heard.

hen the Public Works and Trans-portation Department’s Diver-

sity Council holds meetings now, the top-ics are quite diverse themselves. That’s because right now the Diversity Council is planning for the future. The developing stages that are happening showcase the diverse ideas of the group; and ways to bring out the diversity of our workforce for the future. While making all of the plans for events like a 5k diversity team run, a school outreach initiative, a job shadow program, etc…we had a thought. We have showcased how we as a Council are thinking outside of the box to bring every-one together, but now we want to know - what does diversity mean to YOU?

One important way of listening to what the workforce has on their minds is through our newly placed comment box-es. Over a dozen have been placed at mul-tiple City of Austin campuses. At nearly every Public Works and/or Transportation floor and facility there is a comment box, waiting for your questions or comments. We also created email accounts to better capture what you are thinking and feeling. As with every new initiative, the results are small right now – so we need your help. What we also discovered is that we have opened the door to diversity and great things are coming out, but we need more

A Diverse Future for our City

w

input. What does diversity mean to you? How do you show diversity in your work life? Is there anything you would like to see the Diver-sity council address?

One of the great re-sponses that have come in so far is from Torch Acosta with Engineering Services. He had this to say about what diversity means to him. “My connotation of diversity is living and work-ing with people from every ethno-socioeconomic back-ground in a collaborative and harmonious manner. Consequently, I think inclu-sion is harnessing diversity’s positive powerful effects to achieve social success.”

Additionally, as the word has gotten out, more and more employees are be-coming interested and won-der how they can become a member of the council. At this time, the current term for members is not up, but attending a meeting is al-ways an option as we have an open door policy. If an employee has an interest in seeing the inner-workings of the Diversity Council, a request can be sent to sit in on an upcom-ing meeting. We welcome visitors to our monthly meetings, be-cause input is key to making this a success.

O n c e again, we need to hear from employees on what diversity means to them to better do our job on the Council for you. Be on the look-

My connotation of diversity is living and working with people from every ethno-socio-economic background in a collaborative and harmonious manner. Consequently, I think inclusion is harnessing diversity’s positive powerful effects to achieve social success. ”

“

out for comment boxes at each Field Of-fice, department break rooms, and vari-ous floors at OTC. Please drop us a line,

share your thoughts and concerns. Help us know what you think and want for di-versity in our department!

LOCATION 1 LOCATION 2

IN EVERY ISSUE WHERE IS SHUV-L-REDDY?

where In The world Is Shuv-L-Reddy?

Can you correctly identify both project site locations that Shuv-L-Reddy has visited? Write in to: [email protected] for a chance to WIN A PRIZE!

ANSWERS FROM LAST ISSUE:Location 1: Shuv L Reddy in Macchu Piccu, PeruLocation 2: City Hall Christmas display


Remember Carmen San Diego? Waldo? Well, Shuv wanted in on some of the action…play our guessing game as he wanders around the city at various PWD-related sites...and beyond!

CONGRATULATIONS:Alison Von Steinfor being the first to guess last issue’s locations correctly!


events calendar 2012

MARCH

05 06

12 13

26

2019

29

01

Sunday

07 08Sunday

14 15Sunday

21 22

Sunday

2827

02 03

09 10

16 17

23 24

class 8:30 AM-4:30 PM OTC-325

Defensive Driving

South by Southwest(begins)

04

11

18

25

$ pAy DAyFirst ThursdayAustin City Council Meeting

$ pAy DAy

Austin City Council Meeting

class 1-5 PM LRC@ABIA

New Employee Safety Orientation

Diversity Council Meeting1:30 PM OTC, Conference Rm. 1000

6:30 AM-12 PMCheathem Facility Large Conference Room

Health Screening

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

30 31


It’s My Park Day!

Zilker Kite FestivalDaylight Savings Time (begins)

South by Southwest

South by Southwest(ends)

First Day of Spring

$ pAy DAyCapitol 10K

6:30 AM-3 PMLearning & Research 2800 Spirit of Texas Dr.

Health Screening

7:30 AM-1:30 PMWaller Creek Center620 E.10th Street, Rm. 104

Health Screening

Back Parking Lot of Kreig Field

Vehicle Safety ROAD-E-O

Professional TruckDriver Defensive Driving Class8-4 PM Cheathem Facility

Work Zone TrafficControl Refresher8:30 AM- 3:30 PM Cheathem FacilityLarge Conference Room

Work Zone Traffic Control Refresher(same as 03/26)

8:30 AM-4:30 PM OTC-325

Defensive Driving




APRIL

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

03 04 05 06 07

08

16

23

02Saturday

Sunday

09 10 11

Sunday

17 18

Sunday

42 52

Sunday

28

29

30

27

12 13

19 20

26

First Thursday


Defensive Driving

Yoga in the Park(FREE)

class 8:30-9:30 AM105 Riverside Room 200

Computer Ergonomics

14

15

21

22

01Sunday

April Fool’s Day

$ pAy DAyAustin City Council Meeting

$ pAy DAyAustin City Council Meeting

8 AM- 12 PMOTC- 325

CPR


Passover (begins at sunset)Good Friday

Passover (ends at sunset)




Early Voting Begins

Earth Day!

7 AM-4 PMPalmer Events Center900 Barton Springs Road

Health Screening

Diversity Council Mtg.8:30 AM Garcia’s Mexican Restaurant (S.Lamar)

8:30-9:30 AM OTC-325

Safety Plus Meeting(PMD/ESD/NCD/QSMD)

class 8-9 AM Cheathem Facility

Safety Plus Meeting(SBO Pavement & Infrastructure)

class 8:30-9:30 AM OTC-325

Safety Plus Meeting(CIPID/HRO/SSD/Fi-nancial Services, OOD, Systems Engineering)


Safety Plus Meeting(SBO District Maintenance)


Defensive Driving

8 AM-9 AM OTC-325

Safety Plus Meeting(ATD)




Safety Plus Meeting(SBO Utility & Structures)

WRITE IN TO US WITH YOUR SUGGESTIONS REGARDING:

Milestones NOMINATIONS

PHOTO CONTRIBUTION

SPECIAL EVENTS GOING ON IN YOUR DIVISION

EMPLOYEE PROFILE NOMINATIONS

WRITING A GUEST COLUMN

...AND ANYTHING ELSE WE MAY HAVE MISSED OR YOU WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW ABOUT

CONTACT US: [email protected]

street talk | march 2012 issue

Documents

public worksvolume

public works heroes

courage dianna

moral courage

extraordinary courage

book profiles

level of public prominence

senator kennedys book