February 23, 2016 -- Safety remains one of the top priorities at Marine Corps Logistics Base Albany and, as such, two recipients were presented awards for their divisions’ notable safety performance at the Commanding Officer’s Quarterly Safety Council meeting here, recently.
Merrill Dickinson, installation safety manager, Risk Management, MCLB Albany, discussed the criteria, the frequency and the process, which Col. James C. Carroll III, commanding officer, MCLB Albany, uses to recognize and reward the safety practices within the installation’s divisions.
“The commanding officer has a safety program he has implemented for the divisions,” Dickinson said. “There is a quarterly award, then there’s an annual award. So, he actually gave out two awards at the CO’s Quarterly Safety Council (meeting).
“The quarterly award went to the Operations and Training Division and was accepted by (the division director,) Bob James,” Dickinson continued. “The annual award, which is a compilation of the matrix for the year, went to (Communications and Information Systems Division) and was accepted on behalf of the division by John Scholl (operations branch chief).”
Dickinson emphasized the importance of providing incentives for continued safety efforts of the entire workforce throughout the installation.
“What we like to do is incentivize and encourage certain parts of the command’s safety program,” he said. “(Things) like reporting near misses, attending the (Voluntary Protection Program) Steering Committee meetings and abating hazards.
“The divisions who fix their problems and removes their safety hazards; the divisions who are represented at the steering committee meetings and the divisions who are out there reporting near misses are the ones (who) get the rewards of being eligible to compete for the quarterly safety award,” Dickinson concluded.
Lori Farr, director, CISD, MCLB Albany, commented on receiving the 2015 annual Safety Award for the division.
“Actually, we got (awards) two years in a row,” Farr said. “We got the 2014 and (now the) 2015. We are very safety conscious here as far as being aware. We talk to our employees; we have monthly meetings and the supervisors meet with the employees.
“What we try to do is to empower the employees so they know if they see anything, they can make a change,” she added. “They understand they are empowered to change anything they think is not safe.
“I think what has helped us to win the award every year is that people are so conscious of that,” Farr pointed out. “They see issues that may cause a hazard, they report them and they (identify) a lot of near misses that way.
“For example, (one day) one of our employees was walking around the (Covella) pond and found several things that could have been a safety hazard,” she continued. “So, it’s not just in our work area; we look everywhere. It’s kind of remarkable that our people are that aware and that they take safety so seriously.”
Farr credits her team of roughly 75 people for their contributions to ensuring safety protocols not only for their immediate work areas within CISD, but also for attacking potential hazards in areas around the installation as well.