FAIRFIELD – Children at Sieda Head Start Preschool in Fairfield got to sit in the driver’s seat of some heavy machinery thanks to a visit from the City of Fairfield’s Street Department.

Employees of the department brought a wheeled excavator, loader, backhoe, snow plow and pickup truck to show the kids on Thursday morning, Feb. 22. Kids had fun climbing into the cab and even running the controls, under close supervision, of course.

Sieda Head Start Teaching Associate Cassie Witt said the children are learning all about roads this months.

“We’re doing different roads studies, so we’re learning about the different types of roads and how we take care of roads,” Witt said.

Witt and fellow Sieda Head Start Jefferson County Teacher Allie McArtor were looking for a guest speaker on this subject, and they turned to Fairfield Streets Superintendent Joe Hird. They were initially planning to have Hird simply talk to the children, but Hird said he could do better than that.

“I told them we could bring some equipment down and let the kids check it out,” Hird said. “It was exciting for the kids to see something like that. I think it’s good for us to be out in the community. We’re part of the community, and we need to not be so focused on working all the time that we don’t take a moment to do something important like this for kids.”

Witt said she appreciated Hird and his staff taking time out of their day to do something fun for the kids. She said Sieda tries to involve members of the community in their lessons whenever possible. For instance, Sieda invited representatives of Connelly Recycling to speak to the children last year about recycling. Members of the Lockridge Fire Department have also spoken to the children about fire safety.

McArtor remarked, “We like volunteers.”