BRANDENBURG, Ky. Kentucky Labor Cabinet Deputy Secretary Rocky Comito today presented employees of the Meade County Rural Electric Cooperative (RECC) with their first Governors’ Safety and Health Award. The employees have gone more than 250,490 hours without a lost-time incident.
Kentucky Labor Secretary Larry L. Roberts said the employees deserve a lot of credit.
“The people of Meade County RECC keep the lights on for thousands of people,” said Secretary Roberts. “After surpassing the mark of a quarter million work hours without an incident, the workers at the Meade County RECC deserve the recognition of the Labor Cabinet as well as praise and appreciation from all the members they serve.”
Meade County RECC distributes electricity to Meade and Breckinridge counties, as well as parts of Hancock, Ohio, Grayson and Hardin counties. Meade County RECC is part of Touchstone Energy, a nationwide community of cooperatives that serves more than 27 million customers in 46 states.
“This is the culmination of a lot of effort and hard work from everyone, including the board of directors to every employee of Meade County RECC,” said Burns Mercer, president and CEO of Meade County RECC. “Hopefully, this is the first of many more to come.”
The Kentucky Labor Cabinet presents the Governor’s Safety and Health Award in recognition of outstanding safety and health performance. An establishment may qualify for the award if its employees together achieve a required number of hours worked without experiencing a lost-time injury or illness. The required number of hours is dependent upon the number of employees. With 63 employees, the requirement for Meade County RECC was 250,000 hours.
The Governor’s Safety and Health Award program is part of Gov. Steve Beshear’s efforts to improve the health of all Kentuckians. The Governor launched kyhealthnow last year as an aggressive and wide-ranging initiative to reduce incidents and deaths from Kentucky’s dismal health rankings and habits. It builds on Kentucky’s successful implementation of health care reform and uses multiple strategies over the next several years to improve the state’s collective health.
Every establishment within the geographical boundaries of Kentucky is eligible for the award, even if the establishment won the award the previous year. Eligibility is limited to one award during a 12-month period of time.
For more on the Governor’s Safety and Health Award, and for a list of past winners, click here.
