Public Works in Mink River by Brian Doyle

Cedar and Worried Man have lunch together every day. "They are, collectively, the Department of Public Works. They have publicworked together for more than forty years, in various jobs....Other towns and cities use their departments just to fix roads and sewer lines and streambeds and such....We are prey to what I might call a vast and overweening ambition. I mean, really, to preserve history, collect stories, repair marriages, prevent crime, augment economic status, promote chess, manage insect populations, run sports leagues, isn't that a bit much? We even give haircuts."