The City of Moose Jaw celebrated National Public Works Week– which runs from May 19 to 25– by holding an open house event at the city complex at 1010 High Street West. 

Examples of the equipment used by the city were staged on the grounds, ranging from vacuum trucks to front end loaders, while workers manned booths that covered the many important jobs done by public works employees. 

The City of Moose Jaw has been holding a public works open house for eight years, with the first instance taking place back in 2016. 

Jessica Craig, open house organizer and a water and wastewater department general utility person, explained why the city hosts the open house. 

“It is definitely awareness, (it is) National Public Awareness Week. We get people to come in and get a feel for what we do, how we operate, see our equipment, our staff,” said Craig. 

The open house also provides an opportunity to show those looking for work some of the open job opportunities within the city. 

“As a bonus (we) recruit. If you have any high school students done school who want a job for the summer, or a permanent career moving forward, we would take any of those as well,” said Craig 

“We always look for temporary employees, especially Parks and Rec, and Streets and Roads. They’re always every year looking for temporary employees, and as you start as a temp you definitely have the opportunity to move up to more permanent positions in any department.” 

The open house wasn’t just geared towards recruitment either, with plenty of schools taking the opportunity for a field trip as buses full of children explored the grounds, taking in the activities and enjoying guided tours of the equipment lined up for the event. 

Tours of the equipment garnered quite a bit of attention, with the ability to sit inside excavators and the various skid steers and loaders drawing large crowds. 

Children played ring toss, received flowers like the ones planted throughout the city and enjoyed the wide range of activities planned for the attendees. One booth in particular resonated with the students– the face painting booth. 

The event wasn’t all face painting and heavy equipment however, refreshments were also made available, with complimentary hot dogs or tacos in a bag provided to the students courtesy of Tacotime Moose Jaw, and the Kona Ice crew served cold treats to a large crowd alongside the rows of booths.