Public Works At Work

Alex Coolman

There were garbage trucks and power tools and sewer pipes and even a

few tadpoles: Almost everything a body could ask for was assembled

Thursday at a special Public Works Day celebration. The event, which

showed off the wide variety of services performed by the able employees

of the city's Public Works Department, was attended by hundreds of

students. Some of them even got to try out the equipment. Jake Amar, the

city's senior environmental engineer, showed off some creatures from the

Los Angeles river, including toad tadpoles and a small, scampering

creature that liked looking at things. No, it wasn't a student. It was a

newt.