Avalon Safety Committee Reviews Past Accidents, Aims for Prevention

AVALON — Fire Chief Ed Dean updated council Nov. 24 on the borough’s Safety Committee’s activities and discussion topics for 2009. Ed Dean, son of Councilman Richard Dean, has been the borough’s safety coordinator for three years.
Ed Dean cited the following incidents that were team discussion points for 2008-09:
A water tower scaffold collapsed during repairs and renovations to the 13th Street water tower. “Unsafe working conditions” and numerous free standing and incorrectly stored pressurized tanks of oxygen, acetylene and propane and were found at the 67th Street well drilling, according to a committee memo. These problems were remediated without further incident, Dean said.
The committee discussed improvements to large incident management with regard to the missing person lost in the dunes over the summer, as well as potential safety issues for the Fourth of July weekend and safety needs for the borough’s “Islandman Triathlon.”
Dean reported no major incidents over Fourth of July weekend related to borough events.
Avalon Safety Committee is comprised of department heads from each borough operational division. The committee’s goals are to reduce workplace accidents, identify and correct safety issues before they happen and look at accidents in retrospect for future prevention.
“The idea isn’t to establish blame but to prevent it from happening again,” Ed Dean said.
Councilman David Ellenberg and Councilwoman Nancy Hudanich congratulated the team for all the accidents that did not happen due to their efforts.
“They’re the hardest to quantify, because they didn’t happen,” Ed Dean added.
The safety team consists of Mayor Martin Pagliughi, Administrator Andrew Bednarek, Councilman Joseph Tipping, Public Works Acting Director William Macomber, EMS Chief Kevin Scarpa, Code Official Paul Short, Police Chief David Dean, Capt. Bill McCormick, Sgt. David Lutes, Construction Official Sal DeSimone, Recreation Director David Haberle and Beach Patrol Capt. Murray Wolf. They meet monthly at a rotation of locations.
“I feel lucky to have a group of professionals who have proven that communication can work between departmental lines,” Ed Dean said. Assistance of Lou Carey and Joanne Hall was very helpful in coordinating safety talks with borough employees and volunteer agencies, he said. Agencies like the volunteer fire department and Avalon Garden Club also work closely with the committee to ensure safety awareness at events.
Annually the borough submits Safety Incentive Programs (SIP) to the Municipal Joint Insurance Fund (JIF), a shared insurance pool of many municipalities, for annual approval and potential reward points. Avalon is required to submit two SIPs any year. Avalon has submitted at least three for the last two years and has submitted four this year.
“I hope to maintain our current silver rating, and endeavor to reach gold rating for safety committee performance,” Ed Dean said.
Council members lauded safety efforts made during November storms.