New England Chapter APWA
President’s Message 2025
Welcome to 2025! I am honored and excited to serve as your chapter president for another exciting year of events and educational opportunities. Last year, we celebrated our 70th anniversary, and this year, I will do my best to continue the legacy of our past presidents and build on the hard work of all NEAPWA members.
I hope to increase our membership this year, especially by including more young professionals. We need to bring more people to our events and balance high-quality events and pricing that is affordable for our municipal employees. We need to spread the workload to more individuals, so I ask that you all become more involved, even if it is a minor task, please do all you can to make our Chapter the best it can be.
We are continuing to work very hard on obtaining First Responder recognition in all of the New England Chapter States. New Hampshire obtained the designation in 2022 and Vermont accomplished it in 2024; however, Vermont still has not received death benefits as New Hampshire did. We hope to get more involvement within the Chapter to help all the states get this victory.
April 7th is the Spring Conference, which is hosted at the New England Air Museum. If you were not able to attend last year, you really should this year. The venue is amazing and there will be some great educational sessions and networking opportunities. Put it on your calendar today, and make it a weekend trip with the family, kids would love the displays they have.
The Administration Professional Workshop is normally in April. Please keep an eye out for information on your administration professionals; after all, we all know they make our jobs much easier.
May 7th is our Vermont Municipal Equipment Show and Field Day. This is a wonderful event for all the front-line workers. Take time to come out to the latest and greatest equipment, our backhoe competition, and spend the day with over five hundred of our front-line workers who get the Public Works jobs done. Come and thank them for all their amazing hard work, day and night, 24/7. They are the first to arrive and the last to leave during most emergency events.
May 18th -24th is National Public Works Week, with the National Public Works Week Commemorative Scholarship Luncheon on May 21st again at the Granite Links Golf Club in Quincy MA. This year’s theme is “People, Purpose, Presence,” please reach out early to get your Proclamations from the Governors for all of the NEAPWA States. Please take the morning and come meet our amazingly supportive vendors and the winners of the 2025 scholarships. We need more help getting word out about these scholarships, please share with all your co-workers and local schools.
June 16th -18th our Summer Conference is breaking the mold this year and we are trying not only a new location but a new State. We will be at the beautiful Waters Edge Resort in Westbrook, CT. We must continue to make this event a success and encourage people to attend the educational sessions held at this event. I am personally looking forward to the new location.
August 17th -August 20th is PWX and it’s back in Chicago Illinois this year. This brings me to the full circle when I first jumped on the Public Works bandwagon. In 2013 I attended my first PWX where I met so many people I was hooked and immediately leaped into more Chapter involvement as soon as I arrived home.
October brings the Fall conference and our annual meeting where we vote on officers and board members for 2026. The date and location are still to be determined.
The final event, The Holiday Board Meeting will be in Vermont, the exact details are to be determined, but there may be more than one event in 2025 in the Green Mountain State. I look forward to serving with all of you. As I mentioned earlier it takes a village, so let’s all pitch in to make NEAPWA thrive in 2025!