If you’ve ever wondered why county, town and village highway department crews are as professional and as skillfully trained as they are, an annual event, held this year at Painted Pony Ranch in Lake Luzerne, can help explain it.
Highway Department staff from all twelve Warren County towns and the City of Glens Falls – as well as employees of the county’s Department of Public Works, its Department of Parks and Recreation, its Buildings and Grounds department and the Warren County Soil and Water Conservation District – assembled on June 10 and 11 on Painted Pony’s rodeo grounds for Warren County Highway Employee Safety Days.
Organized by the Town Highway Superintendents Association of Warren County and Warren County Self Insurance Department, the event promotes the safe operation of equipment – from chainsaws to heavy trucks – and advances the workers’ training across multiple disciplines.
Seminars on topics such roadside ditch management and vehicle/equipment best practices were among those offered the attendees.
Displays from the Warren County Public Health department and the Warren County Office of Emergency Services provided information about the risks of tick-borne illnesses and skin cancer as well as from extreme weather.
According to Rob Girard of the City of Glens Falls’ Department of Public Works, his department sends roughly half its employees to each session every year.
“We definitely find the event useful. The guys pick up a couple things here and there – things to look for, things to be aware of. It seems to become a better event every year,” said Girard.
The county began organizing Safety Days in 2019, said Jessica Burnham, the director of Warren County’s Self Insurance department.
According to Burnham, the event is not strictly educational. “We want everyone to have some fun – we make it fun – with competitions, challenges and raffles,” she said.
Safety Days is also a chance for Warren County and the event organizers to “thank the crews for what they do for us all year long,” she added.
But promoting safety is paramount.
“If someone uses equipment improperly, or it’s defective, if a truck isn’t rigged properly, that’s obviously not good. So procedures are in place for supervisors to be notified and equipment taken out of service,” said April Fiorentino, the confidential assistant to the county’s Superintendent of Public Works and an administrator for the Town Highway Superintendents of Warren County association.
With Burnham and Jen Smith, deputy director of Warren County Self-Insurance, Fiorentino is responsible for organizing the annual event.
“It’s a very collaborative effort,” said Burnham. “We try to introduce new things every year and to keep the event relevant. We listen to what the highway departments tell us, because the event is for them. We brought back a ‘Truck Rodeo’ at their request.”
The trio emphasized that keynote speakers’ messages, seminars and continuing education sessions are for the benefit of the staffs.
“We promote mental health and strategies to avoid burnout. We care about our employees as individuals, not just as members of a workforce,” they said.
But, of course, fewer accidents and fewer workers’ compensation claims benefits everyone, said Burnham. As a self-insured county, the county and its municipalities fund a pool that is responsible for paying workers’ compensations claims. The fewer the claims, the lower the premiums.
“So the goal is to decrease the number of safety-related incidents,” said Burnham.
The event is also an opportunity to strengthen partnerships among the various departments, for crews to network with one another, said Burnham.
According to Todd Beadnell of the Warren County DPW, Warren County and the twelve towns are parties to an intermunicipal agreement which enables them to share resources, and “Safety Days” strengthens those relationships.
“It’s an opportunity to get together as a group and share information,” he said.
And Beadnell said he does not underestimate the value of continuing education.
“When it comes to teaching, there’s never a point where repetition wears thin,” he said.
According to Warren County’s Department of Public Affairs, WSWHE BOCES, Needham Risk Management, Adirondack Employee Assistance Program and CSEA were among those who assisted with this year’s Safety Days.
