What Would You Say You Do Here?

Do you think you know what Animal Control Officers do? You're probably missing parts of their whole picture. In this episode, veteran Matt Ciesielczyk and rookie Blake Stebbins shared some of their lesser-known duties for the City of Elgin.

In the height of Elgin's snowy season, we talked with two women who do important work towards keeping our streets and roads passable, no matter what Mother Nature throws at us. Liz Price is a longtime truck driver, and Katie Thrun is an operations supervisor for EPW.

Keeping the shows running smoothly at Elgin's Hemmens Cultural Center isn't an easy job. John "Smooch" Medina has been part of the framework that holds up programs - sometimes, literally, with his hands - for a decade. He talks about the spider-hole inside the Hemmens, the time a client asked him to break the laws of physics, the four most pampered parrots he ever met, and most importantly, how he got the nickname "Smooch".

We hit the road for this episode - Summit Street, to be precise - and met Lt. Mike Murtagh and Nick Walker at Elgin Fire Station #1 during an active shift to talk about life as firefighters in the City of Elgin.

If you've been to the Centre of Elgin lately, then you know Ashley Sumner's face and sense of humor. She's been working her way up through various roles with the City for half of her life, and she shares some of her experiences in this episode.

A city as old as Elgin can contain structures from more than a dozen architectural movements and eras. It's up to Christen Sundquist to help preserve the architecturally-significant homes and businesses of Elgin, and identify "newer" buildings that become "historic" as time flies by.

The Water Department's product touches our residents' lives many times each day. Learn more from Nora Bertram and Jeff Luker about how they make **ten million gallons** of it every day.

We get a two-fer in this episode, as Joe Schroeder and David Smith share stories of their combined 40+ years working on and in the streets of the City of Elgin.

Our second episode features Barb Keselica, a longtime City of Elgin employee who recently stepped into the Assistant Director's chair in our Parks & Rec department.

Our first episode of "What Would You Say You Do Here?" features Jennie Phillips, a longtime City of Elgin employee who made the shift from 911 to help launch Elgin's 311 call center in 2014. Also: she really likes candy.