Blog: City Blog

City Workers' Top Skills On Display at Equipment Rodeo

Hundreds attended the City's annual Equipment Rodeo at Chilhowee Park on Sept. 25, 2019, where Public Service Department employees tested their skills handling backhoes, garbage trucks, wheel loaders, skid steers, lawn mowers, knucklebooms and more.

“I love this rodeo,” said Chad Weth, Knoxville Director of Public Service. “Our team gets to show their skills in being quick, safe and precise in handling these heavy vehicles. It’s really important, and it’s fun.”

Equipment Rodeo

City Public Service employee Leonard Campbell judges the Gradall competition, entering
scores using new software.

New to this year’s event is modern electronic scoring of all events. Previously, judges would record scores on paper, with runners on hand to take the data to a designated table for entering into an Excel spreadsheet.

This year’s scores were processed digitally on tablets in real time.

“I want to thank the company NuOrigen and their team, Bimal Shah and Sainath Kanaparthi, who developed the app for scoring and volunteered their time to come over from Nashville for the day to work with us,” Weth said.

Public Works Rodeo

Winners of the challenges will compete statewide on Nov. 6 at the Tennessee Chapter of the American Public Works Association event in Chattanooga. Knoxville’s Public Service Department employs 291 people.

Congratulations to our winners of the 2019 City of Knoxville Rodeo:

BACKHOE
1ST place Gregory Grayson
2nd place Cory Vaden
3rd place Joseph Gaulding

GARBAGE CART LOADER
1st place Gregory Grayson
2nd place Linda Clevenger
3rd place Cory Vaden

SKID STEER
1ST place Elie Muncey
2nd place Billy Baker
3rd Jeremy Ferguson

GRADALL
1st place James Edwards
2nd place Joseph Gaulding
3rd place Terence Prater

WHEEL LOADER
1st place Gregory Grayson
2nd place Terence Prater
3rd place Christopher Webster

KNUCKLEBOOM
1st place James Burress
2nd place James Edwards
3rd place Stephen Collins, Jr.

THROWBALL
1st place Robert Perry
2nd place Britton Patterson
3rd place Joe Cope

LAWNMOWER RACE
1st place Tyler Nicholson
2nd place Elie Muncey
3rd place Todd Lyons

OVERALL
1st place Mike Grayson
2nd place Isaac Ogle
3rd place James Edwards

Posted by On 01 October, 2019 at 1:41 PM