Allendale April 4, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 3 JIF presents borough with Gold Award, $1,500 by John Koster The Joint Insurance Fund has presented the Borough of Allendale with a check for $1,500 and the JIF Gold Award, one of only three Gold Awards given to the 38 eligible towns in the Joint Insurance Fund’s coverage area. “Safety as an issue becomes very boring, because you can’t get your teeth around it, but your town has been very cooperative,” said Art Caughlin of Nelson-Patterson Insurance Agency. “Out of a 100-point possibility, you scored 108 because you did some extra things.” Those extra efforts, he said, were well-attended meetings and commitments to safety education by department heads and council members for the entire staff of the Borough of Allendale. Caughlin pointed out that, when the Joint Insurance Fund began promoting workplace safety in 1985, the average rate of work-related accidents in the area was six accidents per 100 hours of work. The reduction of the average number of accidents to three per 100 hours, he said, has saved the municipalities millions of dollars in insurance costs and payments. “With Art’s help and the help of our employees, we’re running a very safe town,” Mayor Vince Barra said. Council Member Elizabeth White also thanked Caughlin and the employees for Allendale’s fine safety record. “When management buys into safety, everybody does well,” White said. (continued on page 10) Mayor Vince Barra and Art Caughlin