Say More in Raymore

Serving Raymore: Inside Public Works

• City of Raymore, Missouri Government • Season 1 • Episode 5

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Meet a few of the dedicated team members who keep Raymore running smoothly as Public Works Director Trent Salsbury and Assistant Director Justin Paith share insights into their department's critical functions and upcoming projects.

• Engineering and operations teams work together to maintain city infrastructure while balancing reactive and proactive maintenance approaches

• Current projects include street preservation, curb replacement and the design of the upcoming Kurzweil Road reconstruction scheduled to begin next spring

• Safety remains a primary concern with crews working on streets and requesting drivers slow down around work zones

• Winter operations planning begins in summer, with preparation conversations starting in August and the annual snow kickoff meeting in October

• Longtime employee Andy Elliston reflects on his 46-year career with Raymore, witnessing the city grow from 3,000 to 25,000 residents while helping shape its infrastructure

• The Public Works Department takes pride in serving the community and making tangible improvements daily, with a team able to implement more proactive maintenance

If you see our Public Works crews working on streets or other infrastructure, please slow down, move over, and help keep them safe so they can return home to their families each day.

Learn more about the City of Raymore's Communications Department at www.raymore.com/communications

Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Threads @CityofRaymoreMO

Melissa Harmer:

Welcome to Say More in Raymore, the City of Raymore's official podcast. I'm your host, Melissa Harmer, Communications Director for the City. Each episode will bring you news, updates and behind-the-scenes stories from your city government covering projects, events and the people who help make Raymore a great place to live, work and visit. Today I have Public Works Director Trent Salsbury and Assistant Public Works Director Justin Paith with us. Welcome.

Trent Salsbury:

Hello.

Melissa Harmer:

Hi. So first let's introduce you to our residents and our listeners. So tell me a little bit about you, trent, your background and how you came to be in Raymore.

Justin Paith:

I went to the University of Kansas State when I graduated there. I didn't want to move back to Kansas City, so I decided to take a job in Dodge City, kansas. I was out there for about three years and decided that was entirely too far from home. So I looked for an opportunity back here and about four years ago I found a job with Raymore and been here ever since.

Melissa Harmer:

What about you, Justin?

Trent Salsbury:

Well, I started with Raymore when I was a seasonal at 16, when I was in high school. And in this episode we do have an additional guest Raymoor's longest running employee, andy Elliston, who works at Public Works, has been with the city for 27 years, and both of you, within the last year or less, have been promoting.

Andy Elliston:

So, trent, you went from assistant director of Public Works to director.

Melissa Harmer:

And then, justin

Justin Paith:

, I actually went from crew leader to crew supervisor and then assistant Public Works director.

Melissa Harmer:

Great. Anything else you want to share about you? No, no, well, you're going to have to because I have a couple quick rapid fire questions. I'm going to ask you the same ones. So, justin, let's go with you first, so that Trent has a little time to think. Okay, what is your favorite thing to do in the summer? Favorite summer pastime when you're not here?

Justin Paith:

your favorite thing to do in the summer, favorite summer pastime when you're not here? I like to hunt and fish. So anytime I have a free opportunity, I'm usually fishing, spending time with my wife. In the past there's been with my son playing competitive baseball, so nice.

Melissa Harmer:

Would your 12 year old self think you're cool?

Justin Paith:

Probably not.

Melissa Harmer:

But that's okay. Yeah, what a 12-year-old self Right. Would you rather be able to fly or have super strength? If you had a super ability?

Justin Paith:

Probably super strength.

Melissa Harmer:

All right. If you're going swimming, are you doing the cannonball into the pool or are you dipping your toe in first?

Justin Paith:

Oh cannonball,

Melissa Harmer:

oh nice. Do you learn by watching or by doing?

Justin Paith:

By doing hands-on

Melissa Harmer:

got it, got it and uh. What do you like better as far as work goes, work in the summer or work in the winter?

Justin Paith:

um I like both actually. Um, I I see the benefits of both. Um, snow is probably the worst part of winter, but it's one of the biggest parts of our job, so snow is probably more satisfying, I guess, because you can see no vehicles on the roads and then, once you get get the roads cleared, you start seeing residents again.

Melissa Harmer:

Nice, All right, Trent same questions. What's your favorite thing to do in the summer?

Trent Salsbury:

My favorite thing to do in the summer is anything outside. I hate being inside. I can stand 100-degree heat outside, but if it's 75 inside I'm miserable. So anything outside. We have a garden. This year do a lot of grilling, building whatever it is.

Melissa Harmer:

Nice. Would your 12-year-old self think you are cool?

Trent Salsbury:

Absolutely not, but it would be what my 12 year old self would expect.

Melissa Harmer:

Okay, Uh, would you have a? Would you rather be able to fly or have super strength?

Trent Salsbury:

I think, fly so I can get to work a lot faster or just get anywhere a lot faster. Cannonball or dipping in your toe in the pool first I'm a pansy dipping my toes first. Learn by watching or learn by doing? Probably learn by doing.

Melissa Harmer:

And summer or winter for your work here. What do you prefer?

Trent Salsbury:

I would probably say summer. We get to see the benefits of all of our winter work, building all of our projects, and then also build all of our projects for the next year and do all of the budget stuff. So probably summer.

Melissa Harmer:

And that leads us into just give us either one of you a general overview of the Public Works Department or Trent. Why don't you give us an overview of the engineering side, and then Justin can tell us about the operations side?

Trent Salsbury:

So our engineering side is made up of five people Now. We have an administrative assistant, we have a senior engineering tech who started a couple days ago, and then we have three engineering techs who kind of oversee all of the field work.

Melissa Harmer:

And then what kind of stuff like tell me about what the engineer. What do you do with like plans? What kind of things you have to look?

Trent Salsbury:

for. So the senior engineering tech and myself we do a lot of the plan review. We're looking for basically to make sure everything that's in the plans matches our standards, is something that we would want built in the city, and then our engineering techs are the ones in the field making sure that whatever's in the plans is built as its plan.

Melissa Harmer:

And tell me about operations, Justin.

Justin Paith:

So the operations side we have myself administrative assistant. We have three crew leaders utility crew leader, concrete crew leader and a street crew leader, and then we have 13, I believe 13, maintenance workers that are umbrellaed under our crew leads. Our jobs are you know, when we get service requests called in for potholes, signs down, you know anything, we prioritize what we can and then go out and attack it. We're always trying to be proactive, but we've got to put the fires out first before we can be proactive.

Melissa Harmer:

And without Public Works we would not have clean water to drink, our toilets wouldn't flush, we wouldn't have streets, we wouldn't have sidewalks that were safe. So a lot of unknown things go on all the time in both areas of Public Works. But it is essential to our quality of life here in Raymoor and I know we just a couple months ago had National Public Works Week where we kind of give you guys some extra shout outs for the stuff that you do. If anyone doesn't know, they should really appreciate everything that you all do every day so that we have a normal, functioning city.

Justin Paith:

A lot of people don't understand what Public Works does Right and what's involved in Public Works.

Melissa Harmer:

What would you say? Is there something that's the most surprising thing that people say I didn't know, you did that.

Justin Paith:

I wouldn't say. There's really one glaring thing. That's a surprise. I think a lot of people, just when they flush the toilet, it's just gone.

Melissa Harmer:

They don't know there are these processes. There's processes with it.

Justin Paith:

Yeah, to get it out they don't have water when they wake up. And then, all of a sudden, who do I call? Well, that's your public works department, because they're out fixing the water main right um, so I think that's just a side. Is you know, the engineering side? Nobody understands what's involved in the entire public works department.

Melissa Harmer:

And hopefully we'll shed a little bit of light on that here today. And you're on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, doesn't matter if it's the weekend or Christmas.

Trent Salsbury:

Someone always has to be ready to go if there's water main break or any other kind of infrastructure emergency Correct and I was kind of going to say that to your point earlier that when you go to sleep and wake up and your water's back on, well, there were people out there that worked for the city all night making sure that that happened. That is the one thing I don't think people quite fully wrap their head around.

Melissa Harmer:

I agree and I know that there have been a few overnighters that I know you guys have done in the years that I've been here, not very fun, but we're very thankful for it.

Justin Paith:

Thank you.

Melissa Harmer:

So, trent, let's go over some of the major projects happening right now, like in street preservation and curb, and how do we determine what streets to to mill and overlay what curbs?

Trent Salsbury:

replace. Yeah, so the street preservation project's about half done right now. They've left town for their I guess we call phase one and they'll be back later this fall to finish up the rest of it. And the curb project is probably about half done as well, so they are over on country lane, I believe, right now. Um, as far as how their roads are rated and selected, each year there's a a rating system we use for curb and then one for asphalt. We drive all the roads in town every two to three years. We get these numbers, we put them into a database and then we try and spread the money for the projects around town. So if there's 10 roads in each zone of town that are needing replaced, we'll do three from each of them, or something like that. So we try and pick the worst roads but also spread it around town so everybody gets a bit of the benefit.

Melissa Harmer:

And I think there were more than two dozen streets on this year's plan, so it was a pretty big batch of streets, yes, but of course the work is never-ending.

Trent Salsbury:

That is correct. Unfortunately, it is never-ending.

Melissa Harmer:

There are some other projects in the design phase right now Kurzweil Road. Tell me about that and where we are there.

Trent Salsbury:

Yeah, so Kurzweil Road. We awarded the contract about a month ago. That went to Wilson and Company. They have done their preliminary survey, they're doing traffic counts and they have started in on the design work. That's kind of what they're working on. They're going to be looking at things like redoing the ditches, extending the box culverts, intersection improvements, trying to fix the intersection at 155th and Kurzweil where it's misaligned. There's kind of that weird jog in the road or whatever. So they're going to be looking at things like that to try and fix out there as well as replacing the road.

Melissa Harmer:

And then I think this fall we get that design.

Trent Salsbury:

Yeah, so hopefully we'll have design October, November this year, we can go out to bid with it and then the intention is to start that project early next spring.

Melissa Harmer:

Excellent. Any other upcoming projects?

Trent Salsbury:

We have a couple in the works, but nothing is notable- at Kurzweil Road for sure.

Melissa Harmer:

And really you've just been working a lot on getting your capital improvement projects ready for the budget for next year and those are kind of planned five years out.

Trent Salsbury:

Yeah, yep, so we have, I think. I think I told Justin the other day we have 15 projects planned for next year. I'm not entirely sure how many of those will go, but we have quite a bit of investment in the city planned for next year.

Melissa Harmer:

Awesome and tell me about streets, justin, and what our residents can do to help keep your crew safe when you're out working on the streets. We have striping coming up next month and I've been out with the crew a few different times over the years. Every single time I am out, I do witness a driver doing something horribly dangerous and on their phone or texting or whatever, and just flying by very closely to our guys out there. So what can everyone do to help them stay safe when they're out working on the streets?

Justin Paith:

Well, our guys are always out pothole patching when they're out on 58th Highway, which is a major concern of ours. As many potholes as we have we've got a detenuator out, we've got blocking vehicles. So we've got five, six guys out there to fill a potholes as we have. We've got a detenuator out, we've got blocking vehicles. So we've got five, six guys out there to fill a pothole, trying to take all safety precautions that we can. We would just ask that when you guys see us out there, if they could slow down, move over to another lane, let the other traffic get in front of you if that's what needs to happen. Just keep in mind that we're just like everybody else and our goal is to get to work, do a job and go home safe to our families, just like everybody else.

Justin Paith:

We've decided last year, with paint striping 58 highway again is the main priority that we've decided. We're going to paint stripe the arrows on 58, the crosswalk stop bars at night. That would eliminate our guys from being standing out in the road with all the traffic. So we're going to do that again. This year Eliminated a lot of time that was spent on the highway, plus the safety side of it. It was a no-brainer for us to try to implement that.

Melissa Harmer:

Plus, they're not out in the beating down sun in the heat of the day in August too, so that I'm sure was much welcome by them.

Justin Paith:

Yes. So our plan is, our guys would do all the truck work within three to four weeks, and then they'll spend roughly three weeks doing night work around town, and then we'll be sure to have all the school crosswalks painted before school starts nice, tell me what you're planning for winter events it's not gonna, we're not gonna have any oh no snow.

Melissa Harmer:

Okay, you heard it here first on the same one rain we're podcast. Don't worry, guys, we'll be fine this winter we are always thinking about snow.

Justin Paith:

Unfortunately, I think it was two weeks ago I actually met with the crew leaders and told them you guys realize we're. We're three and a half months away from hooking our snow stuff up to see and we are probably feels like you just unhooked.

Justin Paith:

Yeah, yeah, yeah we still feel like we're playing catch up from winter and yet we got to start thinking about winter already. So it's a it's really a never-ending thought in our minds and plan and preparation. So I know October we'll have our annual snow kickoff meeting and we usually start having those conversations in August, so unfortunately it's not too far away.

Melissa Harmer:

Always planning ahead, though, and I know that we have had overwhelming support for you when you, when you guys, have been out like day after day after day, we had kind of like a few snow events right in a row with no break in between. Our residents are awesome, and most of them were sharing messages of support and encouragement with you, so I think that that's really great that we have people who support you, knowing that you're out there overnight, holidays and all that stuff, just so that we can, you know, so we can drive to the grocery store and get to work and do all of that stuff and you know, that's something that people probably don't realize too is those positive comments that our guys, guys, people don't think that they see them.

Justin Paith:

They, they do.

Melissa Harmer:

Oh, I made sure that you saw some of them too like I posted some of those up around your public works building, um, just to make sure, because it was. I know that was just like an exhausting several days. So I know that, yeah, lots of, lots of your people do see them and I mean extra sure they would see that too. They did, I can tell you that, and there's still some hanging around. I know that's nice. That's nice. Maybe we'll get some fresh new ones this winter, if we get anything. But we won't we'll be fine. We'll be fine.

Melissa Harmer:

Correct. What else do you want to share about Public Works? What? Why do you do this? What do you get out of it? What makes you proud to be with Raymoor Public Works?

Trent Salsbury:

I think that what I like about public works in general is just that every day, even if most people don't see what we're doing, I can see what we're doing. I get to build something, but I also get to work for a community and be involved with residents and be hands-on and have an impact on somebody each day.

Justin Paith:

Yeah, I think the same thing, trent. It's like you're giving back to your community. Every day you go out and you do something. There's a little bit of satisfaction at the end of the day, like you made a difference. I know, when I started, when I was younger, our community was a lot smaller. Raymoor was very small, but to me Raymore still feels like a small town.

Melissa Harmer:

I still feel that small town. Yeah, you know a lot of the folks that you see around town. They know you and yeah, I think that that's really a good thing that we have here in Raymor.

Justin Paith:

Yeah, I agree. You know our department is, we're fully staffed. So we in the past we've had to just be reactionary to everything we did. We would go put fires out Anything that came up. That's just what we did. And we're finally getting back into the routine of trying to be proactive. We've got routine sewer jetting that is going to be starting here, hopefully in the next week or two Again. Our paint striping, mud jacking we've got mud jacking back that we haven't been able to do in a couple years. Curb patching is going. Our street repairs we're ramping up as much as we can do. We've got a crack ceiling on our hopeful plan that we can get there, trying to figure out what we're capable of with the guys that we have. And we've got a great crew, great group of guys that all really seem like they want to be here. So that helps us out.

Melissa Harmer:

That is good, and I can tell that when I'm visiting with you all at your building. A lot of them have been here as long as you have too, or we've got a couple that have been here about around the same time.

Justin Paith:

Yeah, and quickly, let's talk about andy big a yeah yeah, so his andy's last day will be the 11th of july. Um he's put in 46 years, um that's longer than I've been alive, definitely longer than trent's been alive, true, longer than I've been alive, definitely longer than Trent's been alive. True, longer than I've been alive, right so I've worked my whole career in Raymore with him.

Melissa Harmer:

So what's it gonna? I mean, I know he's, he's, he's quitting, but he's kind of probably going to come back on a on a seasonal basis, so we're not really like saying goodbye, but what's it going to be like not having him with you every day?

Justin Paith:

it's. It'll be a. It'll definitely be a change yeah um, I I like you said. I think sometimes, when andy will have a day off, he's going to be at their beat our shop yeah, I feel like he won't be. He won't be away too much so we we told him that he will always have a seat at our lunch table, so he is welcome anytime that's great.

Melissa Harmer:

that's great, and I know that he mentioned the other day that he's essentially been working for Raymore Public Works for nearly a third of the time that Raymore has been a city, since 1877.

Justin Paith:

Wow, I've never heard that. Crazy to think about it that way.

Melissa Harmer:

Thank you so much for sharing a little bit about you and what you do and what public works means for the city and

Justin Paith:

and thank you for posting this and being a good communications person for us

Melissa Harmer:

oh, that's nice.

Melissa Harmer:

Thank you very much. Thank you all right guys, thanks, thanks. And in this episode we do have an additional guest. Raymore's longest running employee, Andy Elliston, who works in public works, is sitting down with us for just a few minutes to share a little bit about his experiences here in Raymore over the years, from when he started, when Raymore's population was around 3,000 people, versus now, as he's getting ready to retire and say goodbye, and our population is more than 25,000. Andy, how many years have you been with the city?

Andy Elliston:

46.

Melissa Harmer:

So you started in April of 1979.

Andy Elliston:

Yes.

Melissa Harmer:

Tell me a little bit about when you first came to the city of Raymore, what it was like and what kind of work you were doing in public works.

Andy Elliston:

It was you know street maintenance kind of what I do today. You know it's amazing. You know we were maintaining roads and ditches and dealing with brush or you know whatever comes up. You know we were helping out with the parks mowing their memorial park, mowing our properties, helping out the water department if they have an issue with the water system or whatever. And another challenge was when I started here. Everything we owned was used. Maintaining the equipment, keeping it running, was huge. If we plowed snow at night we didn't have no place to fuel up. So the truck was always full when we started but we had like two five-gallon cans about one o'clock in the morning. You know you dumped them in the truck to keep it going until the gas station opened up in the morning.

Melissa Harmer:

Stuff. That's a lot different now. Oh yeah, what is your favorite piece of work equipment?

Andy Elliston:

Probably be the backhoe that gets used the most.

Melissa Harmer:

At a very young age you had an interest in large equipment. Oh yeah, and you told me before about when you were young. You were riding on the loader with your grandpa. What was he doing here in Raymore?

Andy Elliston:

He was in Silver Lake digging basements.

Melissa Harmer:

Yeah right, when Silver Lake was being developed for the first time.

Andy Elliston:

Probably back in the mid-'60s, I would say. Mid-'60s. Great. Yeah, it's kind of funny. I used to kind of tell everybody I'm an employee-slash-historian because I've seen so much infrastructure go in.

Melissa Harmer:

So you're getting ready to retire here next week. Big change. So what are you going to do with your time?

Andy Elliston:

A few things Probably get some work done to the house. I need a new garage door. Probably some maintenance done on my roof. Might take a few day trips here within the state.

Melissa Harmer:

try to find other things to do and then come back and see us.

Andy Elliston:

Probably.

Melissa Harmer:

Is there anything else that you would like to share?

Andy Elliston:

Well, it's been quite the adventure To think back when I started here, what it was like to see it today. It's been a big change.

Melissa Harmer:

And you've been a big part of that.

Andy Elliston:

Yeah, I've seen a lot of things. You know everything. You know the highway, streetlights. None of that stuff here existed here, totally different than the little town that I started in back in 79.

Melissa Harmer:

And I mean just how cool that you have shaped how Raymore looks, that you've helped make it a cool place for people to move to and raise their families. I'm really glad that I got to work with you for eight years and I know that it's going to be different, but you'll be around, you're not going to go too far, so we'll we'll continue to see you.

Melissa Harmer:

I just would like to say thanks for chatting and thanks for all your, all of your years of service 46 to the people of Raymore

Andy Elliston:

. it's very flattering that you know, for all the things that people said to me, you know and stuff I don't know, I just, regardless of where I would have been, it's still been 46 years. It's just I did them all in one spot, one town. You know I would have been working somewhere regardless, but I stayed within one spot. It's pretty rare for anybody, I guess.

Melissa Harmer:

I think that is rare. And listen to you. You're a humble guy. I think that's why we love you, andy. Do you have anything to leave us with before we say goodbye?

Andy Elliston:

Well, I'd have to say I guess when I do leave this place it will be, will take away, take with me the memories of you know 46 years of everything that happened and you know you kind of call back on them for the rest of your life and remember the good times and good fortune I've had for being able to make it through that time, health and everything else. So not everybody made it. We lost a few. So I guess, more than anything, it's the people you meet Probably spend more time working with them in the daytime than you do with your own family when you go home in the evening.

Andy Elliston:

Sometimes all experiences

Melissa Harmer:

Thank you so much, andy.