Naturally Potatoes honored for workplace safety
By Kathy McCarty
Staff Writer
MARS HILL — Naturally Potatoes has been recognized by the Maine Department of Labor for the business’s continued efforts to offer a safe workplace for employees.
The Safety Works! program of the Maine Department of Labor honored the Mars Hill potato processing facility for its efforts in providing a safe and healthy work environment. During a recent ceremony hosted at the company’s facility on Route 1, DOL officials presented company officials with a Safety and Health Award Recognition Program (SHARP) certificate of achievement.
Photo courtesy of Robert Canney
NATURALLY POTATOES was recently honored for its safe workplace practices, receiving the SHARP award from the Maine Department of Labor. Pictured in front from left, at far right are: Steve Greeley, Maine Department of Labor; Rodney McCrum, president and COO, Naturally Potatoes; Sharon Campbell, region representative for Sen. Olympia Snowe; and Barbara Hayslett, region representative for U.S. Rep. Mike Michaud. In back are some of the company employees, including: Eric Fulton, Dan Belanger, Keith Michaud, Mike Albert, Ron Bell, Kirby Sanford, Fred Delong, Bruce Turner, Ray Czekalski, James Barnes, Pete Lowery and Larry Hathaway. Holding the sign are two longtime employees, Larry Haley and Nancy Hanning.
“This award represents Naturally Potatoes’ high standards and employee involvement in creating a safe workplace,” said Robert Winglass, commissioner of the DOL.
Company officials said the award acknowledges company efforts to create a safe workplace.
“This recognition represents the hard work of our employees who continually seek out new ways to keep our facility a safe place to work. Each and every employee has helped to contribute to the safety culture and shares in the drive to continually make improvements and eliminate unsafe behaviors that lead to injuries,” said Rodney McCrum, president and COO of Naturally Potatoes.
“The award shows that we are an industry leader as we reach our goal to be the Number 1 refrigerated company in the U.S.,” continued McCrum — a goal the company hasn’t reached yet but hopes to one day achieve.
Naturally Potatoes, which currently employs about 100 people, runs two crews that operate 12-hour shifts.
“We produce refrigerated potato products for food service and retail customers,” said Robert Canney, human resource manager for the company.
Canney said the business has customers in both regional and national settings.
The company’s safety record is based on a formula, as Canney explains.
“Our safety record is based more on incident rates which take the number of recordable injuries an multiplies it by 200,000, then divide that number by the total number of employee hours worked in the year. Basically to achieve the SHARP certification, our incident rates have to be at or below the national average for our industry,” noted Canney.
He said Naturally Potatoes’ safety numbers were better than many in the industry.
“Our rates for both the total recordable rate and the DART rate for last year were about half that of the national average. We recently went just over 700 days between lost-time injuries and currently have gone 16 months since our last recordable injury,” said Canney.
