Marlow Electric honored with national award for outstanding safety practices

Marlow Electric has earned the American Public Power Association’s Safety Award of Excellence for safe operating practices in 2019. The utility earned a first-place award in the category for utilities with 15,000 worker-hours of annual worker exposure.

“Strong safety programs are essential to ensuring that electric utility employees are informed and trained on safe work procedures,” said Brandon Wylie, Chair of the Association’s Safety Committee and Director of Training & Safety at Electric Cities of Georgia. “The utilities receiving this award have proven that protecting the safety of their employees is a top priority.”

More than 335 utilities entered the annual Safety Awards, which is the highest number of entrants in the history of the program. Entrants were placed in categories according to their number of worker-hours and ranked based on the most incident-free records during 2019. The incidence rate, used to judge entries, is based on the number of work-related reportable injuries or illnesses and the number of worker-hours during 2019, as defined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

“Marlow Electric is proud of its safety record,” said Jason McPherson, City Administrator. “This award is a testament to the hard work that goes into ensuring that our team members go home safe to their families every day.”

Current Marlow Electric employees include superintendent Chris Dilbeck, and apprentice linemen James Seabolt, Tristan Thompson, Jason Russell and Brian Davis.

“These five men are dedicated to making safety a priority as they maintain the electric distribution infrastructure of Marlow,” McPherson added. “The electric utility is owned by the city. It is an asset to our community, as are these men.”

The Marlow Electric Department has a record of safe and reliable operation. Marlow Electric was awarded the first place Don Howland Electric Operations and Safety Award from the Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma in 2008, 2015, 2016 and 2017. Marlow Electric has also been consecutively certified in the Competitive Utility Program (CUP) by the Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority since 2005. This is the first national award for Marlow.

Marlow is a Public Power Community, which means a portion of the revenue is reinvested to aid in crucial community services such as fire, police, parks and roads. Also rates and policies are locally controlled along with quick, local response.

The Safety Awards have been held annually for the last 60 years. The American Public Power Association is the voice of not-for-profit, community-owned utilities that power 2,000 towns and cities nationwide.