LIVERMORE — The Maine Bureau of Labor Standards cited the town for 23 workplace safety violations at the Highway Garage, Fire Station, Town Office and Transfer Station. Many of them pertain to paperwork or training, Administrative Assistant Kurt Schaub said.
The violations carry a $1,600 fine. However, the town can get the fine lowered or eliminated if they correct all deficiencies and have a walk-through inspection done by SafetyWorks!, he said.
Corrective action has already begun or has already been completed, he said. Noting many of the practices are in place but not yet documented.
The bureau did a surprise inspection of the workplaces in December, Schaub said.
A letter was sent with the violations and received by the town in early January.
Selectpersons voted Jan. 13 to accept the violations and to schedule a meeting with bureau representatives.
“The bureau’s protocol on this is that the meeting won’t be scheduled until after our SafetyWorks! assessment and correction of violations,” Schaub said Thursday.
The Safety Works! inspection is scheduled for Wednesday, Jan. 29, and Thursday, Jan. 30.
“What is not in the report is that the working procedures of our people are very good,” Schaub said an inspector told him. “We do have some work to do.”
Of the violations, 15 were directed to the Fire Department, four to the Highway Department, three to the Transfer Station and one to the Town Office.
The Town Office was cited for a violation of not maintaining Occupational Safety and Health Administration injury logs for five rolling years. It was incomplete, according to the bureau.
There have been no injuries, Schaub said, but it still needs to be documented on the log.
“The Fire Department has done an outstanding job in trying to stay current on training,” Schaub said.
Chief Don Castonguay jumped on correcting the violations as soon as he was notified, he said. He has already conducted a training session for firefighters to get them trained in the areas that were cited, he said. Most of the firefighters had been trained but some had not, he said.
Other violations included the required annual inspection of firefighting clothing not being complete for all members; a doorknob on the front entrance to a fire bay was broken and sitting on the floor; one self-contained breathing mask in a fire engine was found to be unsanitary and one of the related cylinders was overdue for hydrostatic testing.
The fire and highway departments and Transfer Station were all cited for not having a 36-inch clearance for breaker panels.
Violations at the Highway Department and Transfer Station included not completing a written hazard-communications program for the chemicals employees are expected to use and not having written task-specific hazard assessments for duties performed by employees to determine what personal protective equipment they are expected to wear and training employees on the assessment. The assessments have been done but were not documented, Schaub said.
dperry@sunjournal.com
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