Krista Corner Havre Daily News kcorner@havredailynews.com
Safety has been made a top priority for the city for the last four months. The city’s Safety Committee meets each month to work on the adoption of a revised version of Havre’s safety policy. “We’re trying to put together a manual that will work for all of the people that work for the City of Havre,” Committee chair Rick Pierson said. “These policies and procedures aren’t to restrain these guys. They’re to make them learn to live on and off the job in a safer way,” he added. The city obtained a copy of Helena’s safety policy and has used it as a guideline for developing the safety manual for Havre city workers. Pierson said the city’s current policy is fairly vague, and the policy and procedures manual the committee is working on will be more specific. Some procedures will be left to the discretion of each city department. “Things that work for the Police Department don’t work for the Department of Public Works,” Pierson said. At a meeting Wednesday, the committee added a policy for cell phone usage on the job. City workers are no longer allowed to use cell phones while operating a city vehicle or city equipment. This will include lawn mowers as well as city trucks. Also discussed at the meeting was the possibility of designating a city worker as the human resources person or hiring someone to do that work. The committee discussed designating a person within each department for training on safety issues. The next meeting will be July 19 at 4:30 p.m. at City Hall.
