Safety and Savings Means Party Time for Shrewsbury

Each year the Monmouth County Joint Insurance Fund rewards the towns with the best safety records and least amount of time off due to injury with a rebate check and a luncheon for every one of the town's employees.

For the second year in a row, Shrewsbury has earned that distinction.

It's not as easy as simply avoiding getting sick or injured, no, there's a significant amount of planning and paperwork involved when it comes to staying healthy. The person in charge of it all for Shrewsbury: Karen Lloyd.

Lloyd, a employee, is responsible for ensuring that all departments complete their regular reports, safety checklists, training tool boxes, safety seminars, equipment inspections, job site observations and, well, you get the idea.

Though she said it's a group effort, one that requires all of the borough's employees to get on board in order to make it work, Lloyd does admit that she sometimes has to man the phones when there's dallying. 

But, the results are worth it. Not only do the borough's employees employ best safety practices, but a free lunch and a $1,250 check back to the borough doesn't hurt.

"I might not be their favorite person," Lloyd joked. "But they're all happy when we win things like this."

In all, 36 Monmouth County towns participate in the JIF program - after seeing their insurance rates skyrocket this past year - Cindy Lisa, of the Danskin Agency said Wednesday. 

Shrewsbury's made an effort to stay ahead of the safety curve, Lisa said.

"We just want to give back to them for all the effort they've put in throughout the year," she said.