By Chad Feehan / Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The City of Mount Pearl is observing March as National Engineering Month and is recognizing staff for their contributions.
Councilor Bill Antle led the discussion at a council meeting last week, and thanked the city's professional engineers, engineering technologists, and other technological staff for advancing infrastructure and benefitting the lives of Mount Pearl residents.
“National Engineering Month celebrates the heart and soul of engineers, their passion, commitment, and action towards making the world and Mount Pearl a better place,” he said. “We have a great staff here at the city, and I certainly congratulate them for all the work they do for the City of Mount Pearl.”
Councilor Mark Rice said that engineers are involved in all city projects, from navigating the twists and turns of industrial change orders to dealing with the effects of climate change.
“All new stormwater infrastructure is designed to effectively handle increased rainfall,” said Rice by way of example. “The city’s zero net runoff policy and the requirement for stormwater detention systems helps prevent existing storm and sewer water courses from inundated during intense rainstorms.”
Rice also highlighted the city’s focus on reduction of greenhouse gasses in an effort to fight climate change.
“We see this at the Neil Winsor building where we’re trying to do some greenhouse changes up there, going with a more advanced system then we’ve had before,” he said. “Reduction of greenhouse gasses has been identified as being crucial to slowing climate change, so we continuously collaborate with our engineering consultants to ensure that design and construction of facilities such as the Summit Centre and the new community centre at the Team Gushue Complex are LEED (Leaders in Energy and Environmental Design) certified and energy efficient.”
Rice thanked Director of Planning, Engineering, and Development Gerard Antle and asked him to pass on his thanks on to staff for their contributions.
