Portage la Prairie Mayor Sharilyn Knox, Councilor Terrie Porter, and City Manager Nathan Peto, in the presence of City of Portage la Prairie Public Works staff, declared May 19-25 as Public Works Week.

Peto told PortageOnline that he was more than happy to be a part of the proclamation and week, which is also celebrated across Canada.

"It's something that working in municipal governance, you see every day, and you understand the kind of work it takes to run the municipality."

Peto said Public Works staff are dearly needed to have the city run smoothly.

"They work really hard every day, and we take this short amount of time to acknowledge them publicly. But speaking from my city manager role, I have a deep appreciation for the city staff daily."

He noted that people might not fully appreciate the work done by the Public Works employees.

"There are a lot of things we take for granted, like parks, our community spaces, our ability to move around freely on roads and sidewalks, and active transportation paths. All of these are here because we have dedicated staff constantly maintaining them and constantly thinking about how to improve them." 

Brian Taylor, Manager of Portage's Public Works, explains that a traditional event is in store for staff this week.

"Something here in Portage that we've done for the last 30-plus years is we have an appreciation BBQ that we do for the staff, which we will be doing this Friday."

Taylor added that the city wouldn't even come close to functioning without the work done by the Public Works staff.