Seven Fields municipal crew changes hours

In helping their workers save gas money on their commutes, the Seven Fields municipal crew has switched to a four-day work week for the summer. The Post-Gazette has an article about this change and a change in their health care contributions.

Starting next month, municipal workers in Seven Fields will move to a four-day work week for the summer under a plan partially motivated by high gasoline prices.

Workers in the public works department will switch from a five-day week to a four-day work week with staggered days off. Their new work day will begin at the regular start time of 7 a.m. but will finish at 5:30 p.m. instead of the 3:30 p.m. quitting time under the five-day regimen.

Workers will continue to have weekends off, but three employees will be on duty every day, Monday through Friday.

"Council felt it was in a position to provide the workers with an extra day off while also enabling them to ease up on the gas prices," said borough Manager Thomas B. Smith. "We have people traveling from Hopewell, Crafton, Mercer and Valencia. Unfortunately, times are getting tough, and we all need to pull together and start thinking out of the box."

The public works department consists of one supervisor and three laborers.

The new schedule will continue through August when the program will be re-evaluated.