Kirk Pickerel - ABC, Robert Grondin, III and Kevin Murphy - RJ Grondin & Sons; Jerry Gorski - ABC

WASHINGTON, DC – Members of Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) of Maine traveled to the nation’s capital to join their colleagues from across the country in recognizing National Safety Excellence Award Winner – R. J. Grondin and Sons of Gorham, Maine.

The 19th annual Excellence in Construction and National Safety Excellence awards recognized the nation’s safest construction firms in 2008 with a celebration at the Renaissance Hotel in Washington, D.C. on June 24. Maine Chapter member R. J. Grondin and Sons of Gorham, Maine received the Merit Award for Safety Excellence in the Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction category.

ABC member firms achieving Platinum status in ABC’s Safety Training and Evaluation Process (STEP) program are eligible to compete. Selection criteria for the national safety winners included each member’s self-evaluation scores, lost workday case rates, total recordable rates, and interviews conducted by members of ABC National’s Environment, Health and Safety Committee.

R. J. Grondin and Sons has surpassed 825,000 hours without a reportable lost time injury in this, their 50th year in operation. The company is a 3rd generation, family-owned earth-moving business with operations in Southern and Central Maine.

Other local companies receiving recognition from ABC’s Safety Training and Evaluation Process (STEP) program in Maine include:

Platinum

SW&B Construction Corporation of Auburn

Gold

CIANBRO Corporation of Pittsfield
DeBlois Electric Inc. of Lewiston
Enterprise Electric Inc. of Lisbon Falls
Ganneston Construction Corp. of Augusta
Hahnel Bros. Co. of Lewiston
L&B Electrical Contractors of Lisbon
Newman Concrete Services Inc. of Richmond

Silver

Bay Electric Co., Inc. of Cape Elizabeth
Powers Roofing & Sheet Metals, Inc. of Caribou

“These companies strive for our industry’s most important goal, to send every construction worker home safe to their families, every day. They have used the STEP program to evaluate and build upon already stellar safety programs and become leaders in training and incident prevention,” said ABC President Kathleen Newman. “It is a privilege to be able to recognize these companies for their continued dedication to providing training and safe workplaces for their employees.”

Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC) is a national association representing over 25,000 merit shop construction and construction-related firms and their 2 million employees in 79 chapters across the United States. The Maine Chapter represents 175 such companies. ABC is the only association devoted exclusively to the merit shop philosophy, which aims to provide the best management techniques, the finest craftsmanship, and the most competitive bidding and pricing strategies in the industry for all qualified contractors. ABC is committed to free markets, free enterprise, and open and fair competition.

Courtesy: MaineBusiness.com