In the early to mid 2000's a government review study committee was initiated by then Selectman David Walsh.  As a result of the findings from this committee several recommendations were made to the Board of Selectmen regarding how the town should be operated.  One of these recommendations was to combine public works departments into one department.  There were a few reasons for this including consolidation of personnel and services as well as a way to get more out of the individual departments.  The most compelling argument in favor of the DPW was in fact accountability.  Previous to DPW the Highway Surveyor, Water Commissioners and Park Commissioners were all elected positions.  The only way to hold a person in these positions accountable was to vote them out at the end of their term of 3 years if they did not provide appropriate service to the town in their own capacity. 

       In order to properly implement a change in the way these departments were run, a DPW implementation committee was formed to create and install the DPW through a by-law.  From this committee a warrant article was written and a subsequent ballot question was posed to the voters of East Bridgewater in the Spring of 2006.  Both motions passed.  After they had passed the vote, a sub-committee of the original DPW implementation committee decided on how the DPW should be structured.  The members of that committee decided that the Board of Selectmen should act as both the DPW Commissioners and Water Commissioners and shall appoint a DPW Director. The DPW would be comprised of multiple divisions each addressing a current or future need of the town.  The divisions were Water, Highway and grounds, Solid Waste and recycling, Fleet Maintenance and there was language to add future divisions should the town decide they were necessary. This committee also decided that under the Director should be an Operations Manager to oversee all of the functions of the DPW.  In addition, the committee decided that as part of the management structure, the staffed divisions of Water and Highway and grounds should have a superintendent in charge of the daily functions of the division personnel. In 2011, the duties of Highway and grounds Superintendent was combined with the duties of the Operations manager. 

    The Director is appointed by the Board of Selectmen who negotiate his salary as well as the Operations Manager who is appointed by the Director.  The 2 division superintendents are appointed by the Director but are employees at-will covered under the wage and personnel board for the town.

     The DPW currently has 5 divisions. All but one, solid waste and recycling, are staffed. We have 8 employees in the highway and grounds division, 5 in the water division, 2 in Fleet maintenance and 2 in Facilities maintenance. We have 3 administrative support staff, a facilities manager, water superintendent and highway and operations manager who also serves as the highway and grounds superintendent.  All of these positions fall under the control of the Director.