Many workers for the City of Perry gathered Wednesday at the Perry Fire Department for the 4th annual Safety and Employee Appreciation Day.
The program began at 10:30 a.m. with opening remarks from Perry Mayor Jay Pattee, who thanked those gathered for their devotion and professionalism.
“One of the many reasons Perry is such a great place is because of all that you do,” Pattee said. “The teamwork I see so often, the willingness to see that ‘the job gets done’ and the pride in what you do is something to be proud of.”
City Finance Director Susie Moorhead praised the increasing use of the ‘Company Nurse’ by employees and noted that days lost to injury had decreased two years ago, and had continued to decline last year.
“We are headed in the right direction and expect to see the trend continue,” she said. “It helps everyone when our loss history is low.”
Scott Smith and Jeff Hovey, loss control representatives with the Iowa Municipalities Workers’ Compensation Association, were also in attendance and spoke briefly, noting the uniqueness of the gathering and praising the city for its reduced rate of loss.
Perry Police Chief Eric Vaughn offered a presentation on workplace violence, noting that their are some two million victims each year nationwide, and that an average of 1,000 workers are killed each year by violence on the job.
“That makes it number two, behind only vehicle accidents, for cause of death on the job,” Vaughn said. “Those dealing directly with the public are most at risk, but workers attacking or killing their co-workers is not as rare as it once was.”
Vaughn listed several stages of violence in the workplace and warning signs indicative that a problem could arise. He also discussed ALICE (Alert, Lock Down, Inform, Confront and Evacuate), a new method of responding to an active violent situation.
The chief noted the recent ALICE drill at Perry Elementary and offered some thoughts.
“One thing we noticed was that the kids evacuated the school well enough, but they all went out in lines and all stayed together,” he noted. “Now I understand that kids are taught to go from one place to another in lines and it helps keep a count and keep thing organized, but in active shooter situation that might not be best, and we have talked to school officials about that.
“If it were up to me I’d have them come out the down and just scatter all over — get away as fast as you can,” Vaughn added. “I would much rather have to worry about finding each kid later on knowing they had gotten away than maybe something worse. But that was something we didn’t expect, and that is why you do things like this — to be proactive.”
Department heads came forward to list the years of service of each employee in their department, with those reaching milestone marks honored with a plaque. Those receiving special notice this year were: Robert Bennett (Fire, 35 years), Thomas Wolf (Fire, 25 years), Jeffrey South (Street, 20 years), David Pillow (Fire, 20 years), Pat Jans (Police, 20 years), Jean Dowd (Recreation, 20 years), Suzanne Kestel (Library, 15 years), Paula Rychnovsky (Police, 15 years), Josh Sparks (Police, 10 years), Ana Jimenez (Police 10 years), Jill Cook (Library, 10 years), Jason Bane (Fire, 5 years), Allison Conrad (Library, 5 years), Matthew Holmes (Water, 5 years), Caleb Jans (Street/seasonal, 5 years), Dr. Randy McCaulley (City Council, 5 years) and Misty Von Behren (Library, 5 years full-time, 13 total).
A catered lunch provided by Hy-Vee followed, after which additional presentations from the Perry Police and from Mike Thomason of Dallas County EMS were held.
Congratulations to all for a job well done!