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The City Employee Safety Office provides various training opportunities and programs to provide a safe working environment and ensure compliance with OSHA and State Public Employee Safety and Health (PESH) standards. For more information, please contact Firefighter Roman Rotko, Fire & Life Safety Educator, or Lynda DeOrio, Office Systems and Training Coordinator, 315/255-4191.
The Safety Office works with the City’s Safety Committee, which is comprised of members of all city departments, allowing the concerns of all city employees to be addressed. The Office’s activities not only help protect the well being of the city’s employees, but also reduce the city’s insurance premiums and provide more accurate record keeping.
The Office provides all OSHA and PESH required safety training, and additionally in defensive driving; CPR and first aid; rabies awareness; underground facilities protective organization; fire extinguisher use; and snowplow use. Other activities include provision of physicals and vaccines; coordination of placement of fire extinguishers in city vehicles; updating city department and vehicle first aid kits; and establishment of a hearing conservation program.
Safety Committee/Accident Review Committee
The Safety Committee meets four times a year, along with the Accident Review sub-committee, to discuss accidents and how to avoid re-occurrence of preventable incidents.
Community Safety Awareness Programs
In order to educate the citizens of the City of Auburn and encourage a safe working environment for City workers, the Safety Office several years ago, under the direction of former Safety Officer Lt. April Amodei, offered city-wide Safety Awareness programs.
Let's Talk Trash - The weeks of April 10-April 29, 2004, the Safety Office coordinated a "Let's Talk Trash" public awareness campaign, in conjunction with the opening of the City's new Recycling Facility. The goal of the campaign was to heighten the public's awareness of the information in the City's Streamline (recycling/landfill newsletter).The campaign included press releases notifying the public of the campaign, along with a "Safety Quiz," the answers which could be found only in the City's Streamline (the prize was $100 off the
winner's water bill); a coloring contest for 3rd graders, with questions on recyclables; cable tv public service announcements, and the Open House. The landfill employees were each given a safety T-shirt with the "Let's Talk Trash" logo on it. The success of the campaign was gauged by the survey returns (over 100), and the attendees at the Open House (75).
Landfill and Safety Office personnel at start of "Let's Talk Trash" campaign
Slow Down to Get Around - During the weeks of June 2 - 16, 2005, the Safety Office coordianted a "Slow Down to Get Around" campaign. The campaign was spotted by Karen Tarr, a landfill employee, in a national waste management magazine. The goal of the campaign was to have motorists drive more slowly around worker vehicles (sanitation trucks, fire trucks, city DPW workers, fire and police vehicles, etc.) As with "Let's Talk Trash," this campaign included newspaper, radio and cable public service ads, along with placement of bumper stickers and decals on City vehicles, and safety T-shirts for refuse workers with the Slow Down to Get Around logo on them.
For more information on this important campaign, please go to the National Waste Management Assocation's website.
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