General Foremen's Roundtable Recap - August 15, 2013

The General Foremen’s Roundtable held on August 15, 2013, at the NEPPA Training Center in Littleton, MA, began with a presentation by NEPPA’s Executive Director, Larry Brownell, and covered the new program that will be used in Mutual Aid Events starting later this year. The discussion was focused around events that may occur outside of the NEPPA region and how implementation will be handled. 

The next topic on the agenda was a reminder to all the participants that there is a deadline for Global Harmonization training that must be conducted before December 1, 2013 to be OSHA compliant. A recent inspection of a NEPPA member’s work zone setup, that was conducted jointly by OSHA and Mass HighWay, was also covered and the group was encouraged to make sure that their work zones are set up properly.

The next subject for discussion was the revival of the Lineworker’s Rodeo, which was well received. Most of the attendees voiced support for such an event to take place sometime next year. Mike Cloutier, General Manager of Groveland Municipal Light Department, is leading a committee that is presently working to investigate the logistics of holding a rodeo in the future and any help and ideas are welcome.

A Safety Summit was a focal point of the meeting. It started with a discussion of a recent fatality involving a lineworker in Maine and was followed by a short presentation by Mr. Don Dohr of H.D. Electric. It covered the use of a personal voltage detector and how it might be used in storm restoration or nighttime work to help protect lineworkers from unseen and unexpected electrical hazards. Several of those in attendance stated that such devices were already being used by some NEPPA members.  Some utilities encouraged their lineworkers to use personal voltage detectors during storm restoration efforts or during mutual aid assignments, especially when working at night. 

Bob Henriksen then conducted a thought provoking presentation on "Are your crews working safely?" Bob presented many clear challenges to everyone in attendance to take ownership of the safety of each crew member. He also warned about the new dangers of backfeed from solar panels and backup generators that could present new dangers to electrical lineworkers during prolonged outages. The group was visibly moved by the Safety Summit and a new commitment to safety was evident.

NEPPA plans on hosting at least two General Foremen's roundtables each year and is always interested in topics that are relevant to all its’ members. If you have any ideas that may be of interest to the group, please contact Steve Socoby at the NEPPA office for inclusion in one of the upcoming meetings. He can be reached at 978.540.2200 or ssocoby@neppa.org.