(machine grinds)
-The work of Michelle Peterson's hands
(machine grinds)
is everywhere
you look out on the streets of Seattle.
-Yup! (laughter)
-As a metal fabricator with the city's fleet
maintenance team, she's one of the dozens of people
(machine grinds)
that keep more than 4,000 city vehicles on the road --
everything from EVs to dump trucks.
And... -I'll cut these corners off.
-She's working on a siren computer housing.
-I'm building a little cover that has vent holes in it.
Custom work from a paper napkin drawing,
so to speak, to real life back into a fire truck.
-It’s rewarding work, something new every day.
She takes overlap
from several trades: welding, fabricating, repairs.
(saw grinding)
And does a lot of problem solving.
-And this is why I love my job is because I
rarely have the luxury of getting bored.
-Everything breaks eventually, from chain skirts
for breaker heads, back hoe buckets, new bumpers;
It leads to some funny moments
and a special connection to this city.
-I was up at Magnuson Park and I saw a backhoe
going down the road and I pointed it out to my husband and
I said, “That's one of my backhoes,
and it's got the hooks on it that I welded on.”
(laughter)
-The Fleets team plays an important role in
not just keeping city staff mobile,
but also greening
the impact of these vehicles on the planet.
-And we touch every city department.
Yeah.
-Chris Wiley is fleet director for the city
and says they burn more than 2
million gallons of fuel a year, enough to fill a 15
gallon tank, more than 133,000 times.
The goal is to get carbon emissions
down from a 2013 peak of about 29,000
tons a year to 15,000 in 2025 and eventually zero.
-Yeah, we have pretty aggressive green fleet initiatives.
We're trying to
turn over the unleaded fleet by 2030 to all electric.
We're also trying
to go to a fossil fuel free fleet by 2030 as well.
We've actually just implemented renewable diesel
for all of our diesel vehicles.
So we've actually achieved
that that goal for the diesel fleet.
-Renewable diesel comes from fats
like soybean or canola oil,
but the electrification of vehicles
has them really excited, though
it requires they adapt, training staff
for new power systems and components.
At the same time, it was already tough
to find qualified folks to do these jobs.
But the work has always been changing.
Ever since the South Charles
Street facility opened decades ago.
-Uh, skilled trades are kind of that way universally.
So we've been really working hard to keep a full
and productive staff.
-Training... -All right.
I've got to get to a connector, which is under
a strap.
-Was very important to Carolyn Arnold.
(wheels rolling)
(murmuring)
She's a mechanic with the fleets team, mostly
working on Seattle City Light trucks.
Today, she's underneath one,
trying to diagnose an issue with the 75-foot bucket arm.
-To see if we're getting power from the button
to the emergency pump.
And we are not.
So we got to go further down the line.
Boy!
-Don't mind the grumbling.
It comes with the territory.
And she likes this work a lot.
-Sometimes it's challenging and sometimes it's
meditative, depending on what what part you're doing.
B2.
-She learned how to service
bigger machinery like this in her time
with the City of Seattle
and loves the feeling of giving back to her community.
-So a little bit of everything.
And honestly, I really like the people I work with.
You know,
they make it enjoyable to come in every day.
My husband will even bring me
like pictures or clips from the news and be like,
“Is that one of your babies?”
And I’m like, “That's one of my babies.”
-Much like Michelle,
-And this is all stuff
that just keeps the city humming along.
-Who loves this job just as much
as when she started here.
-See the pillar right there?
-31 years in the same shop.
She keeps this picture here
to remind her. -It's immensely meaningful.
Like, the most satisfaction
I get is when somebody else's day is better.
When somebody says thank you.
Or I see the smile.
Or a truck driver will have had an oopsie
and they'll bring it to me.
And they're like, “Oh no, can you fix this?”
I'm like, “Yeah, no problem. Come back tomorrow.”
And they're just like, “Oh my gosh.” “You know, It’s okay.”
“Everything's okay.”
♪♪
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