Upwards of 30 pint-sized students from the Gingerbread House Preschool at St. Patrick’s School toured some of the facilities of the Perry Public Works Department Monday, seeing the big machines up close and bringing home little hard hats for their efforts.
“They’d had something else lined up, and it fell through,” said Perry Public Works Director Jack Butler, “so we told them, ‘Heck yeah, bring them down. We’d love to show them all the equipment.’ They’ve been learning about roads in their class, so we set up some concrete and some blacktop and some gravel and talked a little bit about roads.”
The youngsters were also introduced to a skid loader, snow blower, dump truck, front end loader and everyone’s favorite, the snow plow.
“We had a snow plow set up,” Butler said, “and we had them all write their names on the plow and draw pictures on it, and they thought that was pretty fun. Every one of them got to climb up in the snow plow and sit in the seat and see the lights and all that fun stuff. I think they enjoyed it.”
The kids were not the only ones having fun.
“We had a blast,” said Assistant Public Works Director Josh Wuebker. “Thanks for stopping by.”
Butler said older students regularly tour the Perry Water Works plant and Perry City Hall, but this was his first time as a tour guide through the Perry Public Works.
“We had little hard hats and some stickers for everybody, so it all worked out great.”
