Tanner Miller, director of public works for Forest View, stood before a group of fourth-grade students from nearby Home School on Tuesday, May 21, and opened a small metal box — the kind most residents never think about.
“This is what hooks up to your water meter,” Miller said, holding it up. “It sends us a radio signal that tells us how much water you’re using.”
For the next hour, Miller walked the students through the unglamorous but essential work his department does every day: maintaining water pipes buried underground, keeping streets safe, removing snow in winter, and managing the infrastructure that keeps a town running.
The students, seated around tables at the public works facility, asked questions that cut to the heart of Miller’s job. How do you know when there’s a leak if all the pipes are underground?
Miller explained the department uses smart hydrants with pressure sensors on Maple Avenue and elsewhere. If pressure drops, he gets a notification on his phone. The department also does inspections of the water tower and relies heavily on residents who call to report water where it shouldn’t be.
“We just recently had a break fixed on Grove Avenue,” Miller said. “A resident called us and said, ‘Hey, I see a little bit of water.’ They didn’t have any pressure problems, but they saw water where it shouldn’t be. We went and looked at it, and we had that fixed.”
Miller then walked through a PowerPoint presentation showing the scope of public works: painting curbs, flushing hydrants, picking up storm damage, street sweeping, sewer maintenance, and road paving oversight.
He showed photos of the department’s snow removal equipment — plows and spreaders stored for summer — and the new salt dome built a couple of years ago, which holds about 220 tons of salt for winter emergencies.
One of the most striking images was a before-and-after of how the department now maintains the town’s streetlights. The old way showed workers on ladders. The new way shows workers harnessed in a rented lift — a safety upgrade recently implemented.
Miller spent considerable time on the water system, which was built in the 1950s. The water tower, visible from Interstate 55, holds more than 200,000 gallons of water. The department recently used a drone to inspect the tower cables 130 feet in the air rather than send someone to climb.
The water department also manages chlorination to keep water safe and maintains the town’s fire hydrants — a responsibility many people mistakenly think belongs to the fire department.
“The fire department uses them in case of emergency,” Miller explained. “We maintain them, keep them painted, and flush them.”
When the department flushes hydrants, it uses a special diffuser with tablets that remove chlorine from the water before it returns to the environment. The diffuser also reduces water pressure, preventing damage to grass and nearby property.
Miller showed examples of water main breaks — some small and hard to detect, others catastrophic. One break had flooded a street. Another, under someone’s driveway, required replacing an entire section of pipe because the bend made it impossible to clamp.
The department also coordinates with J.U.L.I.E., a utility locating service. Before any digging, the department marks all underground utilities with colored flags: blue for water, yellow for gas, orange for communications. If the department hits another utility line without proper marking, it becomes liable for repairs.
When asked why he chose public works, Miller said he was born and raised in Forest View and started as a seasonal worker 20 hours a week. Over the years, he earned his water license and moved up the ranks.
“I really like the idea of just working close to home,” he said.
‘They see it every day but don’t understand what goes into it’
Tiffany Barrett, who teaches fourth grade at Home School, said the visit was the second year her program has invited Miller and the public works department to speak with students.
The presentation fits directly into her curriculum. In fourth grade, Barrett’s social studies program focuses on different career paths and government jobs.
“We like to talk about all the different career paths they can do,” Barrett said. “This kind of came up through our social studies program, so we reached out to them last year.”
What makes the visit valuable, she said, is the students are learning about something they can see every day.
“These are things they see … but they don’t really understand what goes into it,” Barrett said. “So, I think it’s really important and it helps bring the community together.”
Barrett praised Forest View and Stickney for their partnership with her school.
“I really love the villages of Forest View and Stickney and how they work with our school,” she said. “The students actually know the government workers here.”
How the partnership came together
Jeremy Reed, the school’s instructional coach, explained how the public works visit became part of the curriculum.
The visit aligns with Illinois state standards for fourth-grade social studies, which require students to learn about their community. When the school reached out to the village about bringing in different government workers, the public works department responded enthusiastically.
“They brought up on their own about this being Public Works Week last year and said, ‘Hey, we would love you guys to all come over here and check out all of our stuff,'” Reed said. “And so that is sort of how it all came together.”
The partnership reflects a broader effort by the school to connect classroom learning with real-world experience.
“One of the things we wanted to do last year was make sure that the students were learning about their community,” Reed said.
As the students left, each carried a temporary tattoo showing the colored utility flags they’d learned about and a bright colored utility worker vest. It was a small takeaway from a morning spent learning how their town actually works.