Marshall Democrat-News: Local News: County recognized for excellence in workplace safety (10/01/09)

From left to right, Northern District Commissioner Norvelle "Brownie" Brown, Presiding Commissioner Becky Plattner, Merlin Aldridge of Meuschke Insurance and Southern District Commissioner Richard "Dick" Hassler as Aldridge presents commissioners with a plaque honoring the county's excellence in workplace safety Thursday, Oct. 1.
(Sydney Stonner/Democrat-News)

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At their meeting Thursday morning, Oct. 1, Saline County Commissioners were recognized by Meuschke Insurance.

Representing that company, Merlin Aldridge presented commissioners with a plaque from Missouri Rural Services Workers Compensation Insurance Trust for the county's excellence as an employer in regard to accident prevention.

"This plaque is just kind of a symbol of their workers' comp excellence and their work safety," he said.

The "hall of fame" plaque is for 2005 to 2008, when the county had a loss ratio of 35 percent or less. Actually, it was 18.69 percent. And, Aldridge said, the better the loss ratio, the better the insurance premium rate.

In other business, Presiding Commissioner Becky Plattner announced that commissioners will be present at the groundbreaking for the Missouri River bridge at Miami Monday, Oct. 5.

Commissioners will meet again Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 9 a.m. in the lower level of the courthouse.

Contact Sydney Stonner at marshallbusiness@socket.net

Eric,

I know your story didn't, but it is perceived by the workers when the commission stands smiling and doesn't even acknowledge the little people that do the jobs very well. A little recognition would have gone a long way for morale. Sometimes a Thank You is better than a raise, is all I'm attempting to say.

-- Posted by Gumby on Fri, Oct 2, 2009, at 8:50 AM

Response by Eric Crump/Editor:

I see your point now. I understand from the reporter who covered the event that the commissioners did not comment about workers during the presentation, and that would have been nice, it's true. I was only concerned that the commissioners were being accused of trying to take credit for workers safety efforts, and I don't think there's a basis to make that claim.

It's looks nice for Northern District Commissioner Norvelle "Brownie" Brown, Presiding Commissioner Becky Plattner and Southern District Commissioner Richard "Dick" Hassler to stand and take recognition for all of the safe work every county employee does. It would have been to bad if the future politician would have recognized all of the county workers that work so hard for the county and do it in a professional way!! Thank you Becky for all of the hard work you do running machinery, fixing roads, doing office work in all of the courhouse offices and keeping all of the crime in the county so low, and doing it all by yourself!

-- Posted by Gumby on Thu, Oct 1, 2009, at 12:23 PM

Nothing in the story indicated the county commissioners were trying to take credit for employees' safety record. The insurance company recognized the commission for the workers' record.