Alice Ross, Administrative Assistant to County Judge Jerry Crane, spoke in front of a display of plaques and a trophy lined up along the judge’s bench in the top-floor courtroom where the Quorum Court, the legislative body of the county, regularly meets.
“Of the 75 counties, there were only 16 that were [given awards]. Hempstead County was one of them.” She went on to explain the rankings are based on a scoring system in which counties win points for holding regular safety meetings, sustaining low loss ratios for workman’s compensation claims and conducting safety self-surveys.
“This is team work from the whole county,” Ross said. "The sheriff’s office, roads and waste, the courthouse.” This was greeted with applause at the meeting.
She singled out Jeff Yates, head of the maintenance shop, who has diligently attended many AAC meetings relating to the safety of workers. He was thanked by Judge Crane for his dedication.
After the meeting adjourned, Ross told us that Yates’ participation in AAC meetings and then his passing down the good advice to his crew was instrumental in the county’s success in winning four straight years of safety awards: “They said that was 50 percent of it.”
Ross said she also attends the AAC meetings, one of which occurred this week.
Yates said the safety meetings in his shop occur monthly. The safety record at the county maintenance shop takes a continuing effort and support from Judge Crane. “[It takes] teamwork, just dedication and we’ve got his backing to help me get things done that I need to get done.”
Consistency is also the byword when it comes to worker safety, Yates said. “It's every day, because there's so many ways you get hurt. Slips, trips and falls are the number one issue for working comps. And once we have so many workmen comp cases, you get put into a category that then they they're more into what you're doing all the time.” He agreed that the cost of insurance premiums can also climb.
Yates described what goes on during the once-a-month safety meetings. “I'll pick a topic, and I'll pull everybody in before we start work that day. And it may be awareness. When school starts back, be aware. You've got kids and stuff getting in busses. Then come summertime, watch out for snakes and just watch, make sure you wear good shoes, have got good footing. We're climbing up and off and on all the equipment, and it don't take a second,” he said.
Ross said that during storms, there is also heightened danger for county workers. “Our road crew has to go out when there's storms, and you never know about power lines and trees when they're cutting them. And now the sheriff’s department, they have their own [meetings], so we do the road and waste. That’s some real hazardous stuff.”
In the event of an accident, Yates said, the county workers have a process for learning what went wrong with an eye toward preventing a recurrence. “We've got a committee that we we look at an accident. If we have an incident, we look at it, see what could have been done to prevent it, yes, and how to set guidelines for each job that you got to do.”
