The city’s police and fire departments have training academies. So why shouldn’t Milwaukee’s Water Works employees – whose work finds them in a variety of situations, in all kinds of weather, and often in the middle of the street – also have a training facility?
Well, now they do. And they designed it themselves.
The Water Works Training Grounds, which are located on the site of the Howard Avenue Water Treatment Plant on the city’s South Side, is, according to City of Milwaukee spokesman Brian Rothgery, the only one of its kind in the Midwest and maybe even beyond.
The facility has a trailer with a classroom for new recruits – many of whom come from Employ Milwaukee, which seeks to match residents in need of a job with City openings – a tool shed, a mock city street, examples of all 14 of the fire hydrants in use in the city, underground pits with water mains and service lines, backhoe training, a a pipe cutting station and more.
The goal is provide new hires with real-life training and experience in construction, maintenance and repair of critical drinking water infrastructure in a low-pressure situation, off dangerous streets and in a setting where mistakes won’t cause interruptions to the system.
The facility was designed and built by the Milwaukee Water Works staff – the folks who know the work and the materials and the situations best.
A number of new hires are coming to the training center soon thanks to Employ Milwaukee and the federally funded Fresh Coast, Fresh Opportunities program.
On Monday, Mayor Cavalier Johnson and members of the media, along with other officials, toured the new facility.
“You should be proud,” Johnson told the staffers leading the tour. “This is amazing. It’s leveling the playing field” in terms of training and in terms of equity and inclusion.
The City of Milwaukee Water Works provides fresh water – plus firefighting water, too – to the city and beyond via two water treatment facilities, nearly 2,000 miles of water mains, 20,000 fire hydrants and more than 145,000 water meters.
The crews also work to replace lead pipes in the city and having more workers is expected to help speed up that process.
Here are some more photos of the facility, taken during the tour:
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He can be heard weekly on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories.
