MEWS Earns Safety Award of Excellence

WASHINGTON, D.C., May 8, 2017 – Mayfield Electric & Water Systems has earned the American Public Power Association’s Safety Award of Excellence for safe operating practices in 2016. The utility earned the First-Place award in the category for utilities with 30,000 to 60,000 worker-hours of annual worker exposure. Rick Aguilar, Chair of the APPA Safety Committee and Director of Job Training and Safety at Kansas Municipal Utilities, presented the award on May 8, during the Association’s annual Engineering & Operations Technical Conference, held in San Antonio, Texas.

“When it comes to electric utility operations, safety is a top priority for everyone involved; from lineman to operator,” said Aguilar. “These utilities have embraced a culture of safety while serving their local communities and deserve to be recognized.”270 utilities entered the annual Safety Awards, which is among 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 2016. 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 2016, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

“MEWS takes a tremendous amount of pride in our safety record, our men and women have accomplished over 10 years and over 1,000,000 hours worked with zero lost time accidents,” said Brent Shultz, Customer Operations/Energy Services Manager of Mayfield Electric & Water Systems “When you are in the Utility business, sending our people home safe to their families is a top priority.”

The Safety Awards have been held annually for the last 58 years. The American Public Power Association is the voice of not-for-profit, community-owned utilities that power 2,000 towns and cities nationwide.