One of Faraday’s first duties at facilities director was to catalog all of the City of Pittston properties including a detailed map and photos and acreage.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
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Ron Faraday is about to enter the Arch Wiliams building at Jefferson Park. The building was remodeled by the Facilities Department from the basement to the roof, including the interior saving the city thousands of dollars by doing the project in-house.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Pittston City Facilities director Ron Faraday directs truck operator Joe Aruscavage while backhoe operator Bruce Widdick prepares to load in shrubbery into the truck at Riverfront Park.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Ron Faraday points to the grass-cutting schedule for the summer of 2020. He has detailed charts of grass maintenance over the past three years.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Pittston City Facilities Director Ron Faraday places a can of glaze on the shelf at the facilites garage. Faraday systematically labels everything in the shop for proficiency essentially saving time and money.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
PITTSTON – At the end of Pittston City Mayor Michael Lombardo’s first term in 2005, he had an idea of creating a facilities department but it never transpired. After a break from public office, he was re-elected in 2018 when he decided to put his plan into place and he couldn’t be happier with his decision.
“One of the things that I think government across the board does well is build things,” Mayor Lombardo said. “One of the things that government does across the board does horribly is take care of things.”
Lombardo admits once a job is put in and it looks good for photos and the press, it is often falls by the way side.
In order to create a facilities department that didn’t fail, he looked towards college campuses where landscaping is meticulous.
“The obvious model is college campuses across the country,” Lombardo said. “When parents show up with students at a campus, you can’t have garbage blowing all over, you can’t have graffiti all over the walls, you can’t have sculptures knocked over, and you can’t have broken windows. You can’t have all those visible things.”
Four-years ago, Lombardo reached out to King’s College’s Chief Financial Officer John Loyack where one of the branches he managed was the facilities department
“He (Loyack) got me all the information on college campuses and how they approached facilities,” Lombardo said. “There are some similarities between campuses and how we do things here at the city. We have walkways and property to maintain just like them.”
He discussed with then Pittston City Mayor Jason Klush on strategies needed to organize a facilities department.
The first person Klush and Lombardo turned to was Ron Faraday; a person they felt had plenty of skill set to administer such a department.
“Ron is great for lots of reasons, one piece that is in parentheses is he being involved with the Greater Pittston Historical Society,” Lombardo admitted. “He has that institutional knowledge of what existed here and that gives him the ability to have that extra eye to details.”
Lombardo admitted he has built the department around Faraday.
Currently, the city Facilities Department has five employees, three full-time and two part-time. Mayor Lombardo would like to add one more full-time employee in the near future because of the success of the program.
“I can’t say enough complementary things about Ron and the department,” Lombardo said. “In addition to what they do in the scope of their job, they’ve saved us a ton of money and they’ve gradually expanded what their capacity and skillset is. They’re doing even more than I ever envisioned.”
Faraday’s team includes Bruce Widdick, Joe Aruscavage, Joe Ardoline, David Papiesz, and Chris Cummings make up the rest of the team. Faraday is not just an administrator; he’s been known to roll up his sleeves as the sixth worker.
“Ron is incredibly detailed with everything he does including scheduling,” Lombardo said. “He documents and labels everything which is great, it’s a time-saver which saves money.”
Faraday brings plenty of experience was his leadership in the manufacturing field where he utilizes the Toyota Production System (TPS), an integrated socio-technical system, a management philosophy and practices.
He uses TPS both at work and at home optimizing his time by labeling every item in his work and home shops.
“I use the five S’s – sort, set in order, shine, standardize, sustain and they add up to the sixth “s”, safety,” Faraday explained. “We’ve had no time lost due to accidents.”
According to Faraday, his department is responsible for maintaining the city’s appearance including the city’s streetscaping.
“In addition to their regular assignments, they backfill the volunteer efforts to do the Art Walk, they help with the Tomato Festival, the Farmer’s Market, they put up tents and banners and I think the city looks the best it’s ever looked in terms of cleanliness. I can’t say enough about the department,” Lombardo added.
The facilities department has the ability to build structures, pour concrete foundations, and remodel existing projects.
Facility team members are multi-talented such as Bruce Widdick skillfully operates the backhoe and other heavy equipment and is capable of welding, Joe Ardoline has a CDL license and can be used by the city’s DPW department if needed.
“That’s what makes us so valuable, each one of them has specialized skills,” Faraday said. “Bruce is a heavy equipment operator, masonry, and carpentry. Joe Ardoline is a master painter. Joe Aruscavage roofed for 20-years, so there’s a lot of technical knowledge in each one of their brains.”
One project that was done by the Facilities Department was the Arch Williams building at Jefferson Park where the team gutted the building and rebuilt it from the floor up.
“If we had to sub out that job out, it would have been tens of thousands of dollars,” Faraday said. “We plan on doing the same thing to the Fred Demech building at Jefferson Park.”
Faraday said the team recently put in a fresh walking path at West Park and thanked contractor Pat Hadley loaning use of a Bobcat and donating cinders for the path.
One project Faraday is pleased with is in aiding the city was replacing nine-street posts that were damaged by vehicles.
“I worked with Sam Falcone’s office (city solicitor) and Joyce Insurance (city’s insurer) compiling all the police reports, estimates for replacement and coordinated with Falcone and Joyce and we recovered over $60,000 from the accidents,” Faraday said. “There’s not one single light post damaged or missing in the city.”
Faraday’s department has been busy with the city’s new acquisition, Pittston Lumber, where this past week they took down the company sign and removed shrubbery at the entrance of the office area.
This past week, it has been decided to remove the two large planters at the Riverfront Park, as they have become a hindrance.
“The planters have been an issue of security, so they have to be removed,” Faraday admitted.
Summer is a busy time for the Facilities Department with the 25-acres of land the city owns that include the six public parks.
“We do a lot of maintenance including grass cutting, weeding, tree trimming or removal, and in the winter snow removal,” Faraday said. “We cut the grass every two weeks.”
Faraday pointed out the snow removal his department is responsible for doesn’t not include streets, just sidewalks and parking lots owned by the city.
In addition, the Facilities Department does a liter run weekly collecting three to five full bags of garbage of liter.
“I’m very invested in my town, I love our city, I love our history and my family has been here since 1771,” Faraday declared.