The next time you watch the Chesterton Street Department’s grapple truck lifting and removing your brush—or you happen to notice in your rear-view one of the Chesterton Police Department’s two dozen squad cars—or you see a Park Department employee riding a mower at Dogwood—spare a moment for the three technicians who keep (nearly) every vehicle and piece of equipment in the Town of Chesterton’s inventory running like a top:
Shop Foreman John Pawlicke, a 10-year veteran of the Street Department with 23 years’ previous experience as a diesel technician at Tandem Transport.
Mechanic I Jason Morse, a 12-year veteran with 15 years’ previous experience as a dealership technician for Honda, GM, and Chrysler.
Central Services Manager Mark Lynk, a 36-year veteran with “no schooling” at all, a shadetree mechanic who “just picked it up and went with it,” as Lynk put it in a confab in Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg’s office.
“We’re always harping on the mechanics, ‘When’s this gonna be done? Why haven’t you got that done?’” Schnadenberg admitted. “But I don’t think the general public realizes how much stuff we have to deal with. About the only thing we don’t work on is the larger fire trucks.”
Lynk put the number of vehicles and pieces of equipment maintained, serviced, and repaired by Central Services at “95-ish”: The dump and pickup trucks; the grapple truck; the bucket truck; the leaf vacs; the plows, salt spreaders, and brining gear; the street sweepers; the vacuum trucks, both the Vactor and the Aquatech; the skid loader; the backhoe; the squad cars; the mowers.
“You don’t have the time to list them all,” Assistant Street Commissioner Dan Moy suggested.
For Schnadenberg, the establishment of a Central Services function was both a logistical and a cost-slashing boon to the Street Department. “The benefit, you know, John comes from working on larger trucks and trailers,” he noted. “Jason comes from automotive. So with all the police cars, between everybody, it kind of all falls into place. And I can’t even think how much it would cost to take these vehicles outside for service, farm it all out.”
“Just an oil change at a dealership, you’re going to spend $100,” Morse interjected.
“At least $100,” Pawlicke agreed.
Central Services provides one other particular benefit for a municipality whose funds are always spread thin. Pawlicke, Morse, and Lynk extend the life of everything they service. “When we traded in a street sweeper, for example, they gave us a lot more money than I had thought because it was so well maintained,” Schnadenberg recalled. “Same with the grapple truck. What did we get for the grapple truck? It was like $40,000. It makes a difference.”
Pawlicke, Morse, and Lynk aren’t just the mechanics, though. They’re also on call, same as everyone else in the Street Department when it comes to snowplowing. “We’re out on the road until something breaks and then we come back and fix it,” Morse said. “It’s definitely not uncommon in a 12-hour shift, two or three times in a night, because a hose blows or someone’s having an issue with something. So we have to stop what we’re doing and go do that and then get back to our snow routes and try to keep up with everything.”
FAQs
What do Pawlicke, Morse, and Lynk spend most of their time on? Police vehicles, which are serviced every 5,000 miles. “Lots of miles,” Morse observed. “Pursuits. Drug intervention. Just wear and tear.”
What’s the most difficult piece of equipment to work on? The vacuum trucks. “They’re the most complicated to change,” Morse said. “Anytime you’ve got that many moving parts.”
Do they like the job? Sure. “We come back everyday,” Pawlicke allowed. “We wouldn’t come back everyday if we didn’t like it, there’s too much work out there,” Lynk confirmed.
Who picks the music? Morse does. “You can’t understand it but he listens to it,” Lynk laughed.
“The main point of this,” Schnadenberg emphasized, “I’m guilty of not telling these guys enough how much we appreciate them. If they’re not fixing stuff, we’re not doing anything.
“We’re not moving forward,” Pawlicke added. “We’re moving backward.”
