The Unsung Heroes

When people take a minute to be thankful during the COVID-19 pandemic, they praise front-line workers who tirelessly keep us safe and fed. These people are recognized for their contribution to the greater good.

I want to take a minute to thank the employees of the Fairhaven (Massachusetts) Sewer/Wastewater Department. Without praise or recognition, they put their lives on the line daily, enabling customers to flush toilets, wash laundry and shower without flooding their homes with potentially lethal sewage. These essential workers deal nonstop with the threat of not only COVID-19, but hepatitis, typhoid, paratyphoid, bacillary dysentery, gastroenteritis and cholera. Yet they do not receive praise.

As department superintendent, I have known my operators and crews for 33 years and have watched them do dirty, nasty, gagging jobs few others would consider doing. They get no pizzas, or cookies, or thank you posters from school children. Without awards or public recognition, my environmental protection warriors work tirelessly at the back end, enabling those at the front end to do their jobs without giving a thought to where the sewage goes.

I want to personally thank, from the bottom of my heart, all these employees for keeping us safe at their own peril. I also want to thank Charlie Murphy, Fairhaven selectman; Pattie Pacella, president of the Fairhaven Rotary Club; and Donna Bosworth, fitness instructor at Dartmouth Total Fitness, for supplying fabric masks so sewer crews can work in public with some protection from their newest enemy — COVID-19.

Sincerely,

Linda L. Schick, superintendent

Fairhaven Sewer/Wastewater Department