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Boak Presented Joan Kovach Safety Leadership Award
BOARDMAN, Ohio – Boak & Sons received the highest honor the Mahoning Valley Safety Council can bestow, the Joan Kovach Safety Leadership Award, at the council’s annual safety awards luncheon Wednesday.
In his brief remarks of acceptance, owner Sam Boak gave all the credit to his workforce. As Claudia Kovach, daughter of the woman for whom the award is named, was presenting the trophy, waiters were passing out dessert -- slices of cake with clear plastic forks stuck in the icing.
Boak didn’t miss a beat. Recalling his mother’s advice, he urged the audience to save their forks because “The best is yet to come.” Members of the audience held up their forks to Boak’s delight.
The moral of the luncheon, he reminded them, is safe workplaces lead to the best for everyone, including more desserts.
Asked afterward about the significance of the Kovach award, he said, “It’s nice to be recognized. [Our focus on safety] is what keeps us in business. I tell everyone, ‘Rule 1: Safety First. Rule 2: Never cut corners.’ ”
Boak & Sons, based in Austintown, is a roofing and insulation contractor with 70 trucks and a workforce of 150. Besides maintaining a safe shop, Boak recently invested in multi-man cobra carts that have the latest state-of-the-art equipment to prevent workers from falling from roofs of the residences they work on.
The company also halts its operations one day a year to hold a safety seminar where the employees hear experts and later break up into smaller groups to discuss safety issues that affect their work.
The other finalists for the Kovach award, Claudia Kovach said, were Magna Seating, Lordstown, a supplier to the General Motors plant in Lordstown, and Steel & Alloy Utility Products, McDonald.
Of the more than 500 companies that belong to the safety council, 187 were recognized in at least one category, some in two or three, for achieving improved safety. The Youngstown office of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation recognized 81 companies in the region for excellent or improved clams records last year.
Speaker was Dale Hamilton, chief operating officer of the BWC. Besides proving more detail on the $1 billion rebate the agency is expected to pay 210,000 employers in Ohio this summer -- the board of the BWC must act May 29 and 30 -- he urged employers to spend the rebate checks on safety, whether equipment or safety education.
Hamilton noted progress the BWC has achieved over the last three years, spending $100 million less on medical claims, better monitoring of prescription drugs dispensed and shorter hospital stays by those submitting claims.
Better monitoring of prescription drugs has resulted in a “savings of $20 million in unnecessary drugs on the streets,” he said. Such drugs are opiate-based such as Oxycontin.
More injured workers treated as outpatients has resulted in the shorter hospital stays, Hamilton added.
He commended the oil and gas operators drilling the Utica shale for their unexpectedly good safety practices. The number of claims submitted to the BWC has come nowhere close to what the agency projected, he said.
Hamilton also noted the reduced incidence of claims from the Youngstown area. The number of workers engaged in manufacturing is one factor because more residents are working in the services sector, he said.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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