For the second time in five years, Paul Pettis was named Employee of the Year in the city’s public services department. Pettis, 67, has worked for public services two different times – from 1967-1976 and again since 1988. He sat down last week to talk about the effect of recent layoffs in the department, the changes he’s seen over decades of working for the city and the one task he still loves after all these years.

Q: How did it feel to be named Employee of the Year?

A: The second time around? I was very shocked this time. With all the changes up here, there’s a lot of guys that have really had to step up and work hard. We lost three good people. As a group, we’ve kind of rallied around each other and done a really good job.

The first time I kind of expected it. This time, it was really a surprise.

Q: Why do you think you were chosen?

A; I guess that I’ve been able to adapt to the change we’ve had up here faster than the other guys.

Q: What’s your position at public services?

A: I do everything. I run equipment. I drive trucks. It’s what the department has turned into. We all do everything.

Q: What’s your favorite task?

A: I still like the challenge of plowing a big snowstorm. I just haven’t grown out of it. It’s like being a kid out playing in the snow.

Q: Do you have any tricks to staying up and staying strong through a long night of plowing snow?

A: I like to eat a lot of bananas and oranges and drink Gatorade. You’re sitting in that truck for a long time, so you have to keep potassium in your body, so you don’t get kinks.

Q: What’s your least favorite part of your job?

A: Cleaning the inside of a truck I don’t run. I hate to pick up after somebody else.

Q: How has your job changed since you started in 1967?

A: I started out as a laborer, standing in the back of a truck pushing sand into a hole. That’s how we used to sand roads. That lasted one week, then I became an operator.

Q: How has the department changed since you started?

A: It has changed a lot. We’re more responsible now to make sure management can keep good records, like how much sand we put out. Our trucks are computerized now. There’s much more technology. I was resistant at first, as any old stubborn guy would be, but I realized it’s part of what the world is today.

Q: How much longer do you see yourself working for public services?

A: If the stock market keeps going down, forever.

Paul Pettis, the public services’ Employee of the Year, stands in front of his plow truck. “I still like the challenge of plowing a big snowstorm,” he says. “I just haven