A Brief History of the Founding of The Westchester County Association of Public Works Administrators, Inc.
In December of 1970, Anthony Carbone left the Engineering Division of the Westchester County Department of Public Works for the Village of Pleasantville, New York.
After his arrival in Pleasantville, he attempted to join the Westchester County Association of Town Superintendents of Highways. This Association, counts as its members, the 17 elected or appointed Highway Superintendents of the 17 towns in Westchester County. Their bylaws prohibiting having any other regular members and Mr. Carbone's application had to be denied.
In contact with other village public works officials, notably Al Webber of the Village of Briarcliff Manor, a need was felt for some sort of organization that would pull together the public works supervisors and foremen from all the communities in Westchester County. A firm decision to proceed along these lines was made early in 1972 at a lunch meeting held at Sellazzo's Restaurant.
Other public works officials were invited to participate and these men became the Charter Members of the Westchester County Association of Municipal Public Works Administrator (WCAMPWA).
In the spring of 1972, two sales representatives from firms supplying goods and services were inducted into WCAMPWA as Associate Members. These two men were Chris Gratz of Capitol Highway Materials, Inc. and Don Franz of Trius, Inc.
In March of 1989, WCAMPWA was incorporated under the laws of New York State.
One of the primary objectives of the Association was the creation of a scholarship fund. This dream finally came to fruition in 1984 when our first scholarship was awarded. Since that time we have awarded more than fifty scholarships to college student both undergraduates and graduates.
In 1985 at the urging of then President Phil Mercier work was begun to become incorporated and to obtain tax exempt status as an educational association. An attorney was hired, Walter Handleman, to guide us through the process finally in March of 1989 the paper work was completed and the State of New York granted us our incorporation and tax exempt status.
In 1986 a Man of the Year Award was instituted and has been awarded annually since that time. In 2005 the name of the Award was changed to Person of the Year.
Since 1984 our Association has been conducting various types of seminars for the education of employees of the members. They have included Snow & Ice Control, Sanitation Procedures, Safety, Road Construction and Design, Drainage, Sewage Systems plus many others. In addition to our seminars at most monthly meetings we have a presentation of something of interest to our members.