We’re excited to announce our 2024 Portage County Safety Award Winners!

We’ll be celebrating and honoring our winners at our next luncheon on Thursday, May 9, 2024, 11:30am-1:00pm, at the Ravenna Elks. Click here to register to attend.

2024 Safety Champion – Renee Onesti, Director of Operations, Kent Elastomer Products: Renee Onesti has continually promoted workplace safety well beyond her daily tasks & job description. She has served on the Portage County Steering Committee for over 15 years helping to develop, coordinate, and facilitate literally hundreds of training events throughout Portage County, including multiple county-wide workplace health & safety expos.  She collaborates with other safety professionals to help solve safety issues beyond the four walls of her company.  She has spoken many times to improve safety, including on the main stage at the Ohio Safety Congress and Expo in Columbus, the largest free safety event in the nation.  A safety champion is one who goes above and beyond the call of duty to promote safety. Renee exemplifies what it means to be a safety champion!

2024 Safety Improvement Award – Diane Conner, Safety Manager, Miller Transfer and Rigging: Diane Conner has been instrumental in elevating the Safety Department and overall safety culture at Miller Transfer and Rigging since she arrived 2 years ago. Diane has created a collaborative and accountable safety department that has improved the company’s overall corporate culture. Last year (2023) preventable Accidents significantly decreased and overall CSA score (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Scorecard) improved by 11%. Accident frequency based on miles driven and total accidents were down 40% vs last year. As a result of Diane’s hard work, Miller Transfer and Rigging was recognized by the SC&RA for these great safety accomplishments.

2024 Safety Innovation Award – The Pyrotek Aurora Plant Safety Team: After noticing that only 5% of employees actually participated in safety or recognized risks. The local Pyrotek plant in Aurora rolled out a new safety program called Find It – Fix It. The program allows employees that find a safety issue to fix it themselves. Once a safety issue is discovered, a member of the Safety Team will verify the hazard and confirm that it was fixed by the employee. FiFI reports are reviewed monthly and the most impactful fix is recognized. In 9 months, participation rate is over 70%, they’ve seen a reduction in maintenance request & labor costs, and over 250 safety issues have been found and fixed by employees. As a result of the Aurora plant’s success, Pyrotek corporation is now in the process of rolling out their Find It – Fix It program at their other locations.

2024 Community Safety Award – The Portage County EMA: Through their Site Assisted Visit (SAV) program, the LEPC visits businesses in Portage County that report annually in compliance with EPCRA. This program has identified many chemical improvements and reporting corrections (both favorable and unfavorable to the business). It provides insight to first responders on the facility type, capabilities, the location, and potential severity of hazardous chemicals. In a typical year the LEPC visits four to eight companies within Portage County to ensure compliance, readiness and help improve the company’s own safety plans. Through this program there have been improvements in employee safety, preparedness for first responders and prevention of environmental incidents.Ryan Shackelford and his team deserve all the credit for developing this program and not only providing all the benefits listed above for Portage County, but also for developing a program that has worked so well that is has been adopted by several other counties within Ohio and a few LEPC’s from other States.