Young children could be seen yesterday climbing into public works and emergency vehicles, including street sweepers and fire trucks, during the City of Weyburn's second annual Public Works and Emergency Services Open House event, held at the fleet storage building on 16th Street.

Kevin Linnen, Superintendent of Public Works for the City, said they had a few new features at this year's event, such as an ever-popular popcorn machine, and a car seat clinic from members of the Weyburn Police Service.

"Then the Fire Department, they brought a few extra vehicles over as well, too, and they also demonstrated a 'jaws of life' rescue."

Emergency services also had Jessi the Fire Dog and Oakley the K-9 on the scene, which was popular with the children.

As mentioned, however, so were the machines.

"We got our graders, we've got our flusher trucks, we've got the valve exerciser, which is what the addition that we brought in last year and then we brought in," Linnen noted. "We have our crack sealer, also an addition this year we brought in. We even put one of the garbage bins in there, the garbage truck, to show everybody how that works as well, too. So it's been fun. Kids are asking lots of questions and jumping up into the equipment. So it's been good." 

"It's a good turnout, and it sure brought in a new variety of people from last year, which is good. So lots of farmers came in this year. Lots of good conversations, too."

He noted the city staff were helping out in preparation for the event, and they were there serving food and doing demonstrations. 

"We brought everything out for the last couple of days and cleaned everything up and it's been quite the job, that's for sure."

Several City Councillors made stops to the fleet storage building as well, including Jeff Richards, who gave kudos to the staff for all their hard work.

"We always want to congratulate our city staff and thank them for all the work they do," he commented. "Putting on this event today was a lot of work, and I appreciate the transparency and them inviting folks into the building to see what they do. But bigger than that, the thanks are for the work they do the other 364 days of the year, right? The graders, and the fire trucks, and the police cars, doing all those kinds of jobs. These are hard jobs, and sometimes we forget that they're called away from their families to make sure we can sit with ours. So hats off."