| The City of Gillette Electric Utility has earned the American Public Power Association's Utility Safety Award for safe operating practices in 2013. The utility earned a first place award in the category for utilities with less than 60,000 worker-hours of annual worker exposure. Marlin Bales, chair of the APPA Safety Committee and Energy Services Consultant at American Municipal Power, Inc. presented the award on April 7, 2014 during the association's annual Engineering & Operations Technical Conference, held in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
"In our line of work, safety is the top priority," said Bales. "Without safety, we can't serve our customers to the best of our abilities. This award recognizes utilities that have their priorities straight."
More than 285 utilities entered the annual Safety Awards contest, which is the highest number of entrants in the history of the program. Entrants were placed in categories according to their number of workers hours and ranked for the most incident-free records during 2013. The incidence rate, used to judge contest entries, is based on the number of work-related reportable injuries or illnesses and the number of worker-hours during 2013, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
"A lot of work goes into building a strong safety record," said Mick Wolf, Electrical Services Superintendent for the City of Gillette. "The City of Gillette Utilities Department looks forward to continuing to improve its safety practices as it provides reliable service to the community."
The safety contest has been held annually for the last 54 years. APPA is the national organization representing more than 2,000 not-for-profit, community- and state-owned electric utilities. |