B.J. Fairchild-Newman
Staff Writer

The Northridge Safety Group ended the year on a positive note Friday with awards and recognition for many of the member companies and plans for the upcoming year at the Benesse Oncology Center.

Chairman of the group, Jay Shively, presented recognition plaques for membership, attendance at the meetings and hosting meetings as well as awards to PK USA for its environmental initiatives and to Knauf Insulation for "excellence in teamwork."

PK USA has a Go Green Project that stresses recycling, and the entire manufacturing community appreciates the difficulties Knauf faced when a major fire hit one section of the company offices.

"Fortunately, most of us will never have to go through this and learn how to deal with this kind of adversity," Shively said.

The group was started in 2006 by Kent McNeely, and he was present at Friday's meeting. He said the safety group is an important way to pull the area companies together for discussions on safety, which concerns every business no matter what products they manufacture.

"Safety is not proprietary," McNeely said. "We need to share information that could save a life. The goal of everyone in manufacturing is to go to work and come home in one piece with no injuries. We need to minimize reportable injuries."

McNeely added that two fatal injuries in manufacturing plants in Indiana have occurred within the last 90 days, and he believes both of them were a result of worker error and wouldn't have happened if workers had been following instructions.

"When a fatality does happen," McNeely said, "all of us need to understand how it happened and figure out how it could have been prevented."

Shively said that as the safety group finishes its second year, the group has become more established and organized. A monthly calendar is being formulated with companies signing up in advance to host meetings and book speakers. He also sees the group addressing more environmental concerns along with traditional safety problems.

Since the Northridge Safety Group is open to any companies in Shelby County that are interested in becoming members, Shively also believes a name change would be a good idea.

Meetings are scheduled at 11:30 a.m. the second Friday of each month at one of the member companies. January's meeting will be held at Ryobi Die Casting Inc., 800 W. Mausoleum Road, and a presentation on Indiana OSHA rules is planned.

Any local companies interested in more information about joining the safety group should contact Shively at (317) 270-2437.