After spending the afternoon at the Seymour Department of Public Works on Tuesday, R.J. Beavers and Daniel Kirby have more respect for the people who work there, such as the crews who pick up trash and recyclables, paint curbs, make street signs and drive street sweepers and snowplows.
As part of the annual Scouts in Government Day, 13 Boy Scouts from troops 526 and 529 in Seymour spent a couple of hours shadowing city government officials and in some cases filling their shoes.
Scouts experienced what it’s like to be mayor, police chief, fire chief and other lesser known jobs such as city engineer, airport manager and sewer utility director.
It’s an opportunity for the Scouts to gain a better appreciation for how their government works, Scoutmaster Dale Siefker said.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]
“They learn a little about how city government operates and about citizenship,” Siefker said. “Citizenship in the community, in the country and in the world.”
Scouts can fulfill merit badge requirements by participating in the Scouts in Government Day and attending a city council or other government meeting.
“This is part of understanding what it means to be a good, active citizen in the community,” Siefker said of Tuesday’s activities.
Siefker said he wasn’t sure how long Scouts in Government Day has been going on locally, but the rotation of how they are picked for their assignments was established in 1982. He recalled participating in a similar activity when he was a Boy Scout in the 1950s and ’60s.
R.J. and Daniel not only received a tour of the city’s new DPW facility at Freeman Field, they even spent time making street signs with employee Justin Colglazier.
“This is pretty cool,” said, R.J., a Seymour Middle School seventh-grader. “I never knew they made them all by hand.”
The boys, both members of Troop 529, learned that the department has been replacing all 3,810 signs in the city so they are more reflective.
“We still have about 300 street signs to swap out by 2018,” Colglazier said.
After he showed the Scouts how he designs the signs on a computer and prints them out on the special shiny material, Colglazier then turned the work over to R.J. and Daniel to finish up.
The boys cut out lettering and walked away with their own signs, one for Daniel Avenue and the other for R.J. Boulevard. Both were impressed and excited to show off their signs to the other Scouts.
This was R.J.’s second time taking part in Scouts in Government Day.
“It’s a good thing because you get to go out and see what other jobs there are besides working at McDonald’s,” he said. “I think working here could be fun. It would be a good job.”
Besides making signs, R.J. said he would like to get to operate the department’s lightning loader, which has a large mechanical claw that is used to pick up heavy or large amounts of debris.
“It would be like playing the claw game at the grocery store, except you wouldn’t win a toy,” he said.
Back at city hall, Scout Cameron Kincer was enjoying his role as mayor for the day.
Although he’s not sure if he would actually like being in charge of the city, Cameron, a seventh-grader at SMS and a member of Troop 529, didn’t mind sitting at Mayor Craig Luedeman’s desk.
Cameron said he had no idea what he would do if he actually were mayor but said he would like to see the city have more parks.
“This is a nice office,” Cameron said. “I don’t really know about being mayor, though. It sounds cool, but it would be a lot of responsibility.”
That’s because the mayor is in charge of about 220 city employees and an $18 million budget.
“You get calls from everything about trash pickup to the parks being in good or bad shape,” Luedeman said.
Cameron also received a glimpse of some of the projects Luedeman and the city continue to work on, including a downtown arrival park and a south extension of Burkart Boulevard.
Luedeman said coming up with ideas to make Seymour a better place to live is part of the job, but it’s more difficult to come up with ways to fund those ideas.
Cameron’s first act as mayor was to sign a proclamation declaring it Scouts in Government Day.
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”At a glance” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Scouts in Government Day
Mayor — Cameron Kincer
Police chief — Brandon Reynolds
Assistant police chief — Kielar Green
Fire chief — Kyle Patrick
Assistant fire chief — Blake Koons
Parks department director — Clark Owen
Clerk-treasurer — Jordan Peters
Director of public works — Daniel Kirby
Recycling department — R.J. Beavers
Building commissioner — Xander Good
Wastewater treatment — Riley Bartells
Airport manager — John Brockman
City engineer — Joseph Maples
[sc:pullout-text-end]