The Department of Public Works (DPW) is an integrated department directly responsible for the activities of Building Maintenance, Highway, Water & Sewer, Vehicle Maintenance, Parks Division including Solid Waste/Recycling and Parks (by special arrangement with the Board of Park Commissioners) and the Tree Warden.

Highways and supporting infrastructure represent the Town’s largest asset both in terms of physical size and value.  The DPW is responsible for the construction, repair and maintenance of all public ways in the town.  This encompasses approximately eighty- eight (88) miles of roadway.  Maintenance of this transportation network includes the paved portions, the unpaved right-of-way, the storm water drainage system, traffic control, lighting, and signage.

Building Maintenance is charged with the responsibility of providing repair and maintenance services for eight municipal buildings and facilities, with the exception of School Department facilities.  These services include design, construction, installation, repair and periodic preventative maintenance, as required.

Vehicle Maintenance is responsible for the fuel, preventative maintenance, and major repairs of the town's vehicular fleet, with the exception of school buses.  This fleet now numbers over eighty (80) vehicles including police cruisers, fire apparatus, ambulances, highway, water/sewer, and other miscellaneous vehicles.

The Water and Sewer Division is charged with the operation and maintenance of the Town’s water supply, water treatment, water distribution and wastewater collection systems. This entails oversight of the system’s pumping and treatment facilities located at four (4) drinking-water well sites. Being a groundwater system, the Town treats its raw water with the addition of sodium fluoride for dental health, lime for corrosion control and sodium hypochlorite for disinfection. All of these treatment processes require daily manual monitoring by certified staff as well as with the Department’s recently installed Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system. Drinking water is pumped to two (2) water storage tanks having a combined capacity of 2.8 million gallons.   

The wastewater system is comprised of approximately forty-four miles of gravity sewer that discharges into the treatment facility operated by the Charles River Pollution Control District. Through its recent sewer extension project, the Department now operates and maintains a sewer pump station located in the Trotter Drive Industrial Park area.

The Environmental Services Division is charged with regular and bulk trash collection, organic waste disposal, recycling collection, household hazardous waste disposal, and solid waste education and enforcement. Included within the Division of Environmental Services is the managed care of the Town’s fifty-five (55) acres of passive and active recreational areas under the jurisdiction of the Board of Park Commissioners. Also held within this unit is the oversight of the Town’s Street and Shade Tree program managed by the Department’s statutory Tree Warden designee.