COVINGTON, Ga. — Day-to-day operations of a municipality takes a lot of work and a lot of hands to do the work.

City of Covington employees, including workers from utility departments, the street department, fleet maintenance, facilities maintenance, parks and cemeteries, engineering & stormwater and the water reclamation department, gathered Wednesday at Legion Field for the second annual Work Glove Lunch.

City Manager Scott Andrews said the luncheon has been held for the last two years to pay homage to the city’s front line workers — a group of workers that are often taken for granted.

“Many other departments have their own annual banquets, such as police and fire,” Andrews said. “However, these front line leaders are truly the ones that keep the city running. We simply wanted to thank them for the countless hours of 'boots on the ground' work they invest in our city. Even during the heart of COVID, these blue collar heroes marched on. They are the definition of essential employees.

“We are grateful to all the members of Team Covington for their dedicated service,” Andrews added, “but wanted to give this dynamic and hard working group a moment of their own to let each of them know how much we appreciate the work they do to keep our City moving regardless of weather, dirty circumstances or a pandemic.”

The city of Covington is one of the larger employers within Newton County. Currently, there are 307 people employed by the city — 306 full-time and only one part-time.