Buckfield safer than ever: report

BUCKFIELD — The Town of Buckfield has passed a safety inspection with flying colors, which means that town buildings and work spaces are unlikely to be hazardous to the health of town workers.

The most expensive repair required by SafetyWorks!, the Maine Department of Labor program that performed the inspection, is the renovation of a staircase in the Fire Department, which is not up to code.

Town Manager Glen Holmes said that he would get a cost estimate on the renovation.

There were 11 violations in all, eight of which were considered to be "serious."

Martha Catevenis, a town resident who works in the industry, says that the designation of serious does not mean that there is a high likelihood that the situation could cause an accident.

Rather, "it means that what they found could actually cause a serious injury," said Catevenis. Hazards that have the potential to cause death or broken bones,  for example, would be considered serious.

Safetyworks! does a free safety audit on all departments in municipalities that sign up for the program. Violations found are not subject to immediate fines, although they must be addressed once they are identified.

"I can tell you that the departments did very, very well," said Holmes. "We had only 10 items found, compared to dozens of items when the Department of Labor came a few years ago." 

Holmes also noted that the inspection found no repeat violations.