Safety first
WARWICK — The Warwick Village Board voted unanimously Nov. 19 to institute a safety committee per the recommendation of the state Municipal Workers’ Compensation Alliance (Comp Alliance), which underwrites the municipality’s workers compensation insurance.
The goal is to reduce accidents and injuries on the job and save money on workers’ compensation claims and insurance premiums.
The village currently has one employee out on workers compensation and he may be away from his job for as much as six months.
The board appointed Trustee Bill Lindberg, DPW Supervisor Kirk Williams, Code Enforcement Officer Daniel Kelly and Village Clerk Jo-Ann Rome to the committee that will also include a union member once the DPW selects their representative, Rome said in an interview.
In October the Comp Alliance paid a visit to the village and toured its facilities including the DPW central garage and historic Warwick Village Hall to look around for areas of improvement such as identifying trip hazards or unsafe storage methods.
At that time the Comp Alliance identified four issues:
Establishing the safety committee.
Banning cell phone use and texting while operating a municipal vehicle.
Mandating seatbelt use.
Developing a fall protection policy.
Although some of these policies are state law, having them in the handbook indicates how seriously the village takes the safety of its employees.
Williams is drafting the fall protection policy while Lindberg is developing seatbelt and cell phone policies for the employee handwork.
The Comp Alliance formalized its four recommendations in a letter to the village dated Nov. 8. The village already has a return-to-work policy whereby the village works with an injured employee’s physician to determine whether or not the individual can return to work safely or on modified duty; however, prevention remains the best way to keep workers compensation costs down.
In other news:
Warwick’s food pantries remain in need of donations and anyone not using a free turkey from any rewards program may donate it to one of the three food pantries in town that include Holy Rosary Church in Greenwood Lake, First Presbyterian Church in Florida or Warwick United Methodist Church in the Village of Warwick.
The Warwick Fire Department’s annual Christmas tree lighting will be held Friday, Nov. 23, at 6 p.m. in Lewis Park on Main Street. In addition to caroling, the word is that Santa will ride in on a fire engine truck.
Residents may leave lawn and leaf bags at the curb for pickup through Dec. 31. The DPW is also renting a chipper until Nov. 29 and residents may bring brush and logs up to 12 inches to the curb for onsite chipping.
Smoke testing of the sewer performed in October was a success and discovered 90 properties with breaches most of which have easy fixes. The building department has notified homeowners and the village will carry out more testing in the spring.
The board approved payment of bills totaling $534,322.72.
The next regular meeting of the board will be held on Monday, Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Warwick Village Hall, 77 Main St.
- Birgit Bogler