On January 22, 2025, Jor Buckley, Amesbury Director of Public Works, gave us a very interesting overview of the DPW and his career in the public works departments of Worcester, where he managed the Sewer Operations Division for 12 years, the as Director of Public Works in the Town of Rutland, MA. He accepted the position of Director of Public Works in Amesbury in 2023. Joe earned a BS degree in Civil Engineering at UMass Lowell, is a Registered Professional Engineer, and received a Graduate Certificate in Local Government Leadership and Management from Suffock University.When Joe first joined the Amesbury DPW, he said, “Whether as an engineer or a manager, throughout my career I have worked as a problem solver. I believe a Public Works Director is simply that, a day-to-day problem solver, keeping the roads functional and the sanitary conditions of the city acceptable. It is easy to get wrapped up in the public works projects people see, like a newly paved road or walkway, or critical operations like snow plowing, but I also have experience in the important tasks people sometimes take for granted, like safe drinking water, responsible operations of sewer systems, drainage infrastructure, and impacts to river systems. Amesbury Public Works supports the folks who live, work, and simply stop by."
One of the most important functions that the DPW is responsible for; dealing with snow, was a tasking that is not a skill set that training as a Civil Engineer prepared Joe for. So, as an inveterate problem solver, he learned how to digest weather forecast, determine what city and contract equipment would be required, for how long, where to preposition them, when and if to pretreat the roads with salt and or sand, and work with rest of the city Decision Team to make decisions on declaring a snow storm emergency, parking bans, and school delays or closures. Amesbury has 15 plow equipped trucks, and contracts for another 10. Snow plowing is very hard on trucks, and reduce their service life by 3 years.
The Amesbury DPW has a budget of $12.5MM, with 32 employees, About 75% of the budget is required for water and sewerage treatment. Amesbury has separate sewerage and storm drainage mains, which significantly reduces the likelihood of sewerage contamination getting into the river during rain storms.