Town of Granite Falls electric department honored with national award for outstanding safety practices

WASHINGTON, DC (April 20, 2020) — The Town of Granite Falls Electric Department has earned the American Public Power Association’s Safety Award of Excellence for safe operating practices in 2019. The utility earned a first-place award in Category A for electric utilities based on having no days away from work and no medical treatment cases in over 12,400 worker exposure hours in 2019.

“Strong safety programs are essential to ensuring that electric utility employees are informed and trained on safe work procedures,” said Brandon Wylie, Chair of the Association’s Safety Committee and Director of Training & Safety at Electric Cities of Georgia. “The utilities receiving this award have proven that protecting the safety of their employees is a top priority.”

More than 335 utilities entered the annual Safety Awards, which is the highest number of entrants in the history of the program. Entrants were placed in categories according to their number of worker-hours and ranked based on the most incident-free records during 2019. The incidence rate, used to judge entries, is based on the number of work-related reportable injuries or illnesses and the number of worker-hours during 2019, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

“The Town of Granite Falls Electric Department is proud of its safety record,” said Jerry Church, Town Manager of The Town of Granite Falls. “This award is a testament to the hard work that goes into ensuring that our team members go home safe to their families every day.”

The Safety Awards have been presented annually for the last 60 years. The American Public Power Association is the voice of not-for-profit, community-owned utilities that power 2,000 towns and cities nationwide.