Co-Op Nursery Visits The Highway Department

By Tanjua Damon

The big yellow trucks in the garage at the Newtown Highway Department brought “wows” from each and every four-year-old from the Newtown Congregational Cooperative Nursery School this week as they tour the facility.

The group of about 16 youngsters made their way into the garage as they passed trucks with tires that were bigger than they are. Their heads were tilted upward so that they could inspect the trucks.

Public Works Director Fred Hurley took the children on the tour throughout the facility showing them maps, computers, trucks, sand, salt, and even a fire truck that was at the garage for yearly maintenance.

Mr Hurley explained to the children that the town uses computers to draw maps, keep records, track the weather especially during the winter, and to watch the pump stations throughout Newtown.

“We don’t have to be at the site,” he said. “It saves time if you can diagnose what the problem is. Then you can make the call for repairs quicker.”

The children were shown where the department keeps its sand and salt to put on the roads to help clear snow and ice. But Mr Hurley reminded the youngsters the importance of staying away from sand piles, because they are dangerous.

“Never, never play in pig piles of sand,” he said. “Always stay away from them. Don’t go near them.”

Mr Hurley explained how sand and salt are mixed to put on the roads during the winter after a storm. The town uses rock salt with sand. The mixture contains five parts sand and one part salt, Mr Hurley said. The salt comes from places as far as Chile and the Caribbean to as close as upstate New York.

The department also has fuel pumps that provide gas to school buses, police cars, and town vehicles, according to Mr Hurley. Two school buses and a car can be fueled at the same time.

The children even learned how the town is protecting the environment by putting plastic containers under the barrels that hold used fuel and oil so that if they leak the liquid does not go into the ground.

And to top off the field trip to the Highway Department, the children even got to tour a Sandy Hook fire truck that was having yearly maintenance work done on it.