KINGSTON – Mayor Steven Noble, Monday, proposed integrating the leadership in the Departments of Public Works and Parks & Recreation.
Under his plan, DPW Superintendent Ed Norman will oversee both departments. A new deputy superintendent of environmental services will be created who will work alongside the existing deputy superintendent and oversee several divisions including parks maintenance, recreation programming, environmental education and sustainability programs, and the sanitation division.
A recreation director will also be appointed to supervisor and lead new and existing recreation programs and services.
Noble said the merged leadership will provide benefits for the operations of both departments. “For years they have worked together, but they hadn’t had the communication and working relationship that was really needed that was able to provide exciting improvements in our parks and in our public works department, so we announced were going to bring them all under one roof,” he said.
The new partnership will not result in any layoffs nor changes to CSEA contracts and will not affect the city’s 2020 budget, the mayor said.
Julie Noble, the current environmental education and sustainability coordinator, has been provisionally selected for the deputy superintendent of environmental services position and will report to DPW Superintendent Norman.
Noble, the wife of Mayor Steven Noble also works in the DPW office working with the sanitation department on recycling and solid waste initiatives.
