Night Work Becomes Safer for Blue Ridge’s Water and Roads Departments

With high-visibility safety vests, truck-mounted strobe lights and portable high-intensity lights, road and water line repairs at night has become a lot safer for Blue Ridge’s water and roads crews.  The city purchased the items through a $6000 safety grant from Local Governance and Risk Management Services, the liability insurance company which provides insurance for Blue Ridge.  Blue Ridge applies for these twice-yearly safety and liability grants, for a total of $12,000 a year, and has received these grants for several years.  Previous purchases included in-car cameras for police cars and tri-pods with harnesses that are used when working in deep holes, so if there is a cave-in, crews can quickly pull their crew mates to safety.

Barbie Gerald, Assistant Safety Coordinator for the City of Blue Ridge explains the win-win Local Governance and Risk Management Services’ grant programs.  Each year a company inspector turns City of Blue Ridge properties and equipment inside-out looking for safety issues and gives the Safety Coordinator a list of issues.  Gerald says sometimes the lists include small issues she has never even thought about, like metal caps on fence posts.  Once the items on the list have been repaired and Blue Ridge submits its policies regarding use of equipment and safety meetings, then Blue Ridge can apply for the grants.