WORKING -- NICHOLAS FIORE

HE IS

Nifty with big equipment.

DELICATE

Nicholas Fiore, 48, who lives and works in Fountain Valley, is an

equipment operator for the city’s street department. Fiore runs

everything from backhoes to loaders. One of the more impressive pieces of

machinery he handles, albeit twice a year, is the vactor.

“The vactor is like a large vacuum cleaner, and we use it to clean the

catch basins, which are the openings in the street where the leaves go

to,” Fiore said. “But the vactor also has a high-pressure water hose that

we put through the manhole, and then run the hose through the sewer lines

using a high pressure of water. Basically, it’s how we clean the sewers.”

TOP GIG

Fiore has been working with the street department for 11 years. He

started as a cement finisher, doing that and maintenance for five years.

Fiore says that his boss, Patrick Danahy, will probably retire within the

next two years, and that he is eyeing the crew leader spot for himself.

He and his partner, Gerald Ford, usually start each day at 6:30 a.m.

They fill out their forms to check out their equipment and go about their

day nonstop until 5 p.m. One day it could be pouring cement, and the next

it could be clearing debris.

He adds that when the time comes to use the vactor, it is a very

organized process.

“We go to the area that we are working on for the day and open the

manholes up, put the hoses down into the lines and clean the sewers,”

Fiore said. “We have a grid map and we move systematically through the

city according to that.”

TESTING TIMES

As for work conditions, Fiore says he loves the outdoors, so the

environment couldn’t be better. He added that it’s easier to work and be

productive when you feel you have some kind of job security, something he

credits the city with. However, things are not always rosy.

“Once in a while a you may open up a man hole at the wrong time and

catch a pretty bad smell,” Fiore said. “It’s especially bad first thing

in the morning.”

-- Story by Torus Tammer, photo by XXXX