Derek from Streets Operations
Download MP3We know our services and programs impact you, so let's talk about them. Together, we'll learn from the people behind the scenes and get to know our city a little better. From the city of Winnipeg, this is Our City, Our Podcast.
Natalie:This podcast is recorded in Treaty 1 Territory, the home and traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Ininew and Dakota peoples, and the national homeland of the Red River Métis. We acknowledge that our drinking water comes from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation in Treaty 3 Territory.
Shannay:Hi. I'm Shannay. And I'm Natalie. Natalie, what is your work title?
Natalie:I am a Public Engagement Officer.
Shannay:So you work to engage the public.
Natalie:That's it. And you are a Marketing Officer, so you do marketing?
Shannay:That's right. Pretty straightforward. So what do you think the Supervisor of Public Service Operations does? Oh. It's kinda like the drawer where you put things that you don't really have a place to put.
Shannay:So we're talking to Derek Resche who takes on a lot of the odd jobs here at the city. But one thing he is known for is the guy who makes Christmas happen.
Natalie:Let's start with the making of a moment.
Mayor Gillingham:We'll count down for 3. Are you ready? 3, 2, 1.
Natalie:So that's a clip from this year's lighting of the Christmas tree. It's a bright, sparkly moment when not just the tree, but actually all of the holiday lights around the downtown turn on all at once. Derek Resche, how are you feeling in that moment?
Derek:I'm feeling very relieved that everything has gone according to plan.
Shannay:Perfect. So that kind of switch flip has been playing out in, like, in a small scale in homes across the city, but I don't think I've ever appreciated the level of coordination playing out behind the scenes at city hall. So is this a months in the making kind of thing?
Derek:Actually, it's a year long process. We have a dedicated festive lighting branch, within public works that, their main task is to deal with the city of Winnipeg's Christmas lights, and the process goes from January right up until December. So it's pretty much Christmas year round in our workshop.
Natalie:And, tell us a little more about those lights, because this is this is no household operation.
Derek:No. It's actually a fairly in-depth operation. So we have about, 750 pole mounted lighting fixtures, and those are the ones that you're gonna see when you're driving up and down Portage Avenue and Main Street, and they include, snowflakes, elves, stars, present piles. We also have 5 large median displays. So that is your north wind that you see outside of city hall.
Derek:We have santa's sleigh and a handful of poinsettia waves. And, all combined, you know, that's about 7.5 kilometers of lighting. And so it's a lot of work to get them ready. We use a, LED rope lighting, and we affix them to these aluminum frames. So we have 2 electricians working year round to ensure that, when the season is here, our streets are looking their best and, as festive as can be.
Natalie:Right. And and to go back to that switch moment, you know, you're really doing a lot to make sure you don't have a Clark Griswold kind of, you know, you bring everyone to watch, you hit the switch, and and nothing happens. So in this instant, when the mayor flips the switch, tell us more. What what what's really happening behind the scenes?
Derek:There's actually a fair bit going on, and, you know, it involves a couple of different, players. We coordinate with Manitoba Hydro to ensure that all of the lights go on at the same time. So we have, you know, the mayor standing there ready to hit the switch so that the tree goes on. And then we also have another City of Winnipeg employee on the telephone with Manitoba Hydro doing the countdown in real time so that a controller at the hydro facility can flick a switch to turn on all of the street lights so that it all comes on in one coordinated effort. And then also on-site is myself who's kinda hiding in the back just hoping that they all go on.
Derek:Otherwise, I'll probably be, out looking for a new job the following day. So it's always a a tense slash relieving moment to see everything come on. And to see the, you know, the smiles on the faces of the citizens of the city of Winnipeg, you know. And we get a lot of kids out of the tree lining ceremony. And seeing that really just it warms your heart and makes it all worthwhile.
Shannay:Mhmm. And holiday traditions are about nostalgia, and we've had some of these median displays for a few generations now that you've mentioned, like the Santa Claus or the North Wind and the meeting of Main Street, like any family traditions, I imagine there's some love and care required to keep them up and running. Can you tell us about that?
Derek:Yeah. Absolutely. So a lot of the work happens behind the scenes in our workshop. So when the lights come down at the end of the season, we always take them down at the end of or middle of January, excuse me. They come back to our shop and we give all the fixtures, cleaning.
Derek:They get a lot of grime and filth built up on them for sitting out for that, month there on Portage and Main. So we clean them up, and then we test every single fixture to make sure that each one's working. We mark the ones that aren't working, and then we, repair and replace all of the broken fixtures so that we have a full and fresh display ready to go for the following season. And that's not something that just happens in the in the span of a week. It definitely carries on for quite a few months, and we wanna make sure that it's looking its best.
Derek:So, you know, come the new year, we're, ready to go.
Natalie:Now sometimes, you know, conditions hit and traditions can change. This was the case with, right over here, the Courtyard Christmas Tree here at City Hall. It's a recent history, but it really is a tale worth preserving. Kinda like the movie Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, it all starts with a really bad storm.
Derek:Yeah. Absolutely. And, and I believe it was 2019, there was, yeah, a very intense storm in I think it was October. And it was so bad. Trees were being knocked down.
Derek:Branches were littering the streets. And urban forestry, who traditionally, cut down a tree in somebody's property and brought it down to city hall, They were unable to do it this year because their, staff were tied up with that, cleanup after that summer. And I don't know if you remember, they were bringing in crews from other provinces to come and help with that. So that's just how intense it was.
Natalie:Treemageddon. Right?
Derek:It really was. Yeah. It was just, all over, and it, left them tied up and unable to fulfill their annual tradition. So they reached out to myself and asked, you know, if I was able to help because I'm you know, some people call me mister Christmas is how they know me before they even know me by my own name. And, by chance, I was able to kind of locate and secure a a Christmas tree.
Derek:They got it up here in time and, for us to put up for that season. It started out with just a, I believe at the time, it was an 18 to, or 22 foot tree. No decorations on it, just the lights. And, so then we kind of absorbed dealing with the Christmas tree from there. And over the past few years, it's grown in size and scale.
Derek:It's up to 50 feet now and we, have it full of decorations.
Shannay:So we've been giving your display work and the Christmas tree Christmas lights a lot of time here, but another big part of your role has to do with residents who belong on the naughty list. You're also the lead when it comes to graffiti removal, a service some folks might not be aware of. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?
Derek:Yeah. Absolutely. And, you know, funny enough, before I applied for this job, I didn't know that the graffiti removal was a service that existed, in the City of Winnipeg. And it's actually a free service that we provide to all residents in the City of Winnipeg. So if you have graffiti on your property, you can call 311.
Derek:They will send us a request for service, and we will send one of our crews down to remove the graffiti, be it on your garage or your fence or your house. We do it citywide, you know, parks, a lot of the city infrastructure we take care of. And we do our best to try and, restore the the the damaged infrastructure back to its, original condition to the best of our abilities. And it's quite impressive how how great we can get things looking with, a lot of effort from our internal staff.
Natalie:I can't help but keeping this on the holiday theme. There is kind of this Santa's workshop tidying elves kind of vibe to it though because you're you're really going the extra mile to to make sure you're not just removing it, you're going as far as matching colors of paint. Yeah?
Derek:Yeah. Exactly. So what we do is we have a, you know, if you got it on your garage and your garage is kind of a different looking canary yellow, our staff will break off a little chip of the paint. We'll go and get an exact color match, come back, and we will paint that portion of your garage, and make sure to cover it up, with the original color so it restores it back to how it looked prior to the graffiti. And this is, you know, something I think a lot of homeowners, they don't realize, but they appreciate because for a lot of people, graffiti, it's, you know, an uncomfortable, potentially scary feeling when you get it.
Derek:You just you associate it with a lot of, you know, trouble. And, to get it removed from people and get their house back to how it was looking, I think, is a very comforting feeling. And we take a lot of pride in doing that work.
Shannay:Are there some graffiti removal jobs that are harder than others?
Derek:Absolutely. I know certain staff dread dealing with stucco. Anything kinda high up can really be a challenge. And it's a bit of cat and mouse where the graffiti, the people out doing graffiti, you know, they try and get it where we aren't able to remove it. So high graffiti can definitely be hard for us to remove where, people tagging will go up fire escapes and lean and dangerous, dangerous ways to try and get their graffiti onto a spot that it'll stay.
Derek:And that could be a bit of a challenge for us to try and access some of these locations. So there's always definitely some challenges to removing it, but, overall, we seem to find a way in trying to keep it, under control and keep the streets looking as best as we can.
Natalie:Does your team catch yourself in in moments of of occasional debate of is this art? Is it like You know?
Derek:Yeah. Absolutely. And I get asked that question quite a bit, and people will think like, oh, but it's so nice. You know? How do you how do you decide what to remove and what not to remove?
Derek:You know? If it's, you know, kind of an evil message versus a care bear saying, I love you. What do you leave up, and what do you take down? And and I've come over the years to just sort of sum it up as graffiti is any kind of unwanted vandalism. So it's really the photo, the picture, the the message is irrelevant.
Derek:If it's on your property and you didn't want it there, it's vandalism and it's graffiti and it needs to be removed. But definitely, there's been some stuff I've seen where you almost are you're second guessing yourself if it should come off or not because the the artistic quality, if you'll call it that, is is far above, you know, just somebody scribbling something with a marker on the side of a bus, bench. So it's always a bit of a debate sometimes whether or not it should come off.
Natalie:Listen, artist. Just get permission. Come on.
Derek:That's all we ask.
Shannay:Is it safe to say your camera roll on your phone has some pretty interesting graphics?
Derek:I've definitely seen some very questionable stuff over the years, and I get sent a lot of, graffiti that, yeah, quite frankly, it's hard to believe, you know, people could contemplate putting on somebody's wall or house. But, you know, I one thing I'll highlight is that anything that's quite controversial, anything racial, hateful, we always prioritize and really make an effort to get that graffiti off the same day or the next day. So any of that hateful messaging doesn't linger around for too long.
Natalie:And it's not just folks calling you. The graffiti removal team also does some proactive work as well.
Derek:Yeah. We absolutely do. See, one of the challenges is, throughout the summer, we can't always remove graffiti when there's days where it's pouring rain. We can't remove graffiti as effectively. I have 6 crews.
Derek:So what we start doing is we, send them out around the city blitzing. And what blitzing essentially is is going out and looking for graffiti. And we'll send with different parts of the city throughout the summer, get them to write down where they find the graffiti. They'll bring the lists in. We then try and contact the residents to get waivers, and this is a big part of our job is trying to get these waivers.
Derek:A waiver is a permission slip for us to go into their property and remove the graffiti. Once we get those waivers, we show up at the house and we start cleaning it. So as much as we rely on the public for reporting it in, we have internal ways of trying to find graffiti as well.
Shannay:We'll wrap this up with this title of yours. Supervisor of Public Service Operations. It's like the island of mis fit toys. Your team takes on a big variety of unexpected tasks. Give us a sense of what's in your inbox right now.
Derek:Yeah. You know, it is a funny, job title and I, am still to this day sort of sorting out what it encompasses because it seems like every day there's sort of something new popping in. I have some emails that pertain to homeless encampments, which is a part of my job. I deal with a lot of homeless encampment cleanups throughout the city. I have direct graffiti email requests.
Derek:I just, on my way in, got a email as I'm the one of the points of contact for our annual recall process. So every year, we bring back a lot of, temporary staff for our public works summer operations, so I'm involved with that. I do a lot of in house training. I'm a part of our spare form and apprenticeship training program. I've taught courses at the corporate level on leadership and customer service.
Derek:I deal with our special events committee, so I'm a bit of a point of a contact for that. And any special event that goes through Winnipeg, I'll get emails on that. And just yesterday, I was invited to a new arts project with the Winnipeg Arts Council. Mhmm. And, so, yeah, I just I each day, I never know who's gonna be reaching out to me for what. So I kinda think of my role as a bit of
Derek:a a catchall, a miscellaneous kind of a job description, if you will.
Natalie:A true jack of all trades. Mhmm.
Derek:Really is and definitely a master of none.
Natalie:Well, alright. Final question for you. We always wanna, you know, pat Winnipeg as a whole on on the back. And and and this is such a good opportunity to ask you about, what's one thing or or something that you wish, everybody knew about Winnipeg?
Derek:No. It's funny you ask that. I, I travel a fair bit and, you know, when I'm meeting other travelers in that world, you know, hey, where are you from? And then I'll say, I often just say Canada, and then more often than not, people say, oh, Toronto. And I'm like, no.
Derek:And they'll ask, oh, where? And so I'll say, well, I'm from Winnipeg. And they kind of give me this blank look, you know, as I'm talking to 2 people from halfway around the world. And I'll say, it's in the middle of the country, and they're still kinda. And then I'll say, you know that bear, Winnie the Pooh?
Derek:He's named after Winnipeg. Oh, yes. And every and I'm amazed at how everyone knows Winnie the Pooh. To the point that one time when I was in the Czech Republic, I arrived in Prague at my hostel. It's about 15 years ago.
Derek:I went to check-in, and there was a pub attached to the hostel, probably a 100 to 200 people in it, and they were doing a trivia night. And I had still had my backpack on, and I could hear the questions in the room next door. And it was, which city is the bear Winnie the Pooh named after? And I yelled out, Winnipeg. And the whole pub, I just heard this, oh, because I'd spoiled the question, but I didn't matter.
Derek:I was the only person that probably knew the answer. So I always kinda use that as a great way to, introduce people to Winnipeg that aren't too familiar about
Natalie:Mhmm.
Derek:Where exactly it is and what it is.
Natalie:Awesome. Well, thanks again for joining us, Derek. Happy holidays. Happy New Year.
Derek:Happy holidays to you too. It's been my pleasure to come down here and talk a little bit about what I do, and I wish everyone the best in the New Year.
Natalie:And that wraps our podcast for 2024. I, you know, it was an important year this year being Winnipeg's 150. And so to start us off, next year in January, we'll be talking to Senior Archivist, Sarah Ramsden.
Shannay:And before we go, we'd love to hear from our listeners. What programs and services impact you most? Email us at city podcast at winnipeg. Ca with suggestions for future episodes in the new year. Thanks for listening.
