Dupage Policy Journal

At its May 15 City Council meeting, the city of Elmhurst celebrated the citizen graduates of its second ever Public Works Academy.

Elmhurst started a citizen’s academy in 2022 to go in depth into its public works department, engaging with the public so that they can better understand what, how, and why the department does what it does. This past spring, the city hosted its second academy, and at the May 15th city council meeting they honored the class of graduates and the successful completion of yet another community engagement program. 

"The academy is designed to give our residents an inside look at how public works operates in Elmhurst to provide a better understanding between public works and the community," Mayor Scott Levin said. "It provides an opportunity for the community to interact with our engineers, water department, wastewater operators and city staff to learn about forestry, street maintenance fleet, and much more."

Public works Stanley Balicki made an announcement for the 35 participants who finished the course, and thanked the few of them in attendance at the meeting. 

“We've been excited to be able to tell our story to this year's class of the academy, not only by conducting classroom time and talking about what we do, but also by including demonstrations of how we do certain things, being able to conduct tours of city facilities as a part of that," Balicki said.

The academy consisted of five evening sessions that began in April, two-hour sessions held on five consecutive Thursday evenings. The sessions were broken down into the five main components of the department’s responsibilities. The first class was on budget, administration, and management. Week two was public works operations like forestry, street maintenance and fleet maintenance. Week three covered underground utilities like water mains, wastewater, stormwater, and included tours of the city’s water infrastructure facilities. Week four continued the lessons and tours. During the final week, students were given a history lesson on public works by local museum director Dave Oberg. 

Balicki named the class graduates who were in attendance, and then honored the rest of the class. He thanked all the members of their public works department for putting in the extra time to teach their citizens, and for the support of the city council. The classes are open to anyone 18 years or older, with preregistration linked on the city site.