The Highway Department Gets Uniforms –

New Fashions For

 Newtown’s Road Warriors

The idea that “image is everything” never used to hold much currency in the Newtown Highway Department, unless flannel, denim, and khaki symbolize something – hard work, maybe.

Comfort and utility have always been the guiding principles of the road crew’s dress code. The work of the road crew has always been hard on clothes, and in recognition of that, the town has in years past given the Highway Department employees a clothing allowance. If someone showed up at work dressed exactly like a co-worker, it was purely accidental. These days, everyone is showing up at work looking pretty much the same, and it’s no accident.

Earlier this month, the road crew lost is clothing allowance and was issued new uniforms instead. The new duds are part of the town’s efforts to standardize its parks and recreation and highway crews. As Public Works Director Fred Hurley points out, the police department is in uniform, so why not the highway department?

The workers’ sartorial selections include rugged outdoorwear as well as clothes more suitable for office work. There are even sport shirts that offer a more casual in-between look.

As with everything new, the department’s foray into the world of fashion look took a little getting used to by the rank and file, who were split on the issue of what the exact color of the new uniforms is. Some are calling it “charcoal gray,” while others liken it more to a “battleship gray”.

Mr Hurley calls it “asphalt gray” – appropriate since the 37-member crew spends much of its time tending to the asphalt of Newtown’s roadways.

 “It really cleans up the look of the department,” Mr Hurley said.