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Lamar Power Partners takes top safety award
By Patrick Graham
The Paris News
Published August 15, 2009
Lamar Power Partners in Paris has received the top honor for workplace safety from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA).
The NextEra Energy Resources site has been awarded the Voluntary Protection Programs (VPP) Star Status distinction from OSHA, which recognizes the plant’s efforts to improve workplace safety since its inception in 1990.
The plant is the first natural gas facility in the country to receive the honor.
The award was presented during a reception Thursday morning at the plant.
“This is really a tribute to the employees,” Peter Holzapfel, regional general manager for NextEra, said. “We can put processes and procedures in place, but the employees have to adopt workplace safety as a value, something you do inherently as part of your job and the employees here have done that.”
VPP is a cooperative program between OSHA and employers throughout the country to implement a comprehensive safety and health management system, a company press release said. Approval of VPP Star Status is OSHA’s official recognition of the outstanding efforts of employers and employees who have achieved exemplary occupational safety and health, the release said.
“This is a big honor,” Stephen Boyd, OSHA Region 6 area director, said during the award presentation. “We typically deal with companies when they need a push to safety, which is why it is great to deal with a company that has already made that commitment to workplace safety.”
Boyd said Lamar Power Partners is only the 26th facility in the Dallas area to receive the VPP distinction and was one of only 500 in the region, which incorporates states throughout the Southeast and Southwest. Company officials indicated there were only approximately 2,300 companies nationally to have earned the distinction.
As part of the application process for the honor, OSHA sent an assessment team to the plant to spend a week inspecting the facility and interviewing employees and management. OSHA also reviewed data on the plant’s safety processes and procedures as part of the assessment. It took about three months before the company heard the results.
“We also have accountability to maintain our status,” Holzapfel said. “We will have yearly follow- ups and if we fall back they can take the status away.”
Tony Rodriguez, executive vice president of the Power Generation division for NextEra, said the Lamar facility has set the standard for the other more than 80 sites in the company.
“This is the highest recognition you can get from OSHA, but it is more about what it represents, he said. “It’s about the culture, the infrastructure and the commitment of management and the employees.”
Following the award ceremony, company officials presented Paris Fire Chief Ronnie Grooms with a check for $7,604 in recognition of the close training relationship between the department and the plant. Grooms said the money was being used to purchase a fire extinguisher simulator for training of not only firefighters, but also other city personnel and the general public.
NextEra employs 33 people at the Lamar facility. NextEra employs approximately 4,500 people nationally and in Canada.
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