County employees to receive $250 safety award bonus

Rogers County employees will soon get a $250 bonus check as an incentive for avoiding workplace injuries.

The Rogers County Commissioners voted during their Monday meeting to grant the awards to every county employee. County spokesperson Diana Dickinson said that includes both part- and full-time employees but excludes all elected officials, including the commissioners themselves.

"These people work hard at their jobs, and the safety award is just a bonus for them," said District 1 Commissioner Dan DeLozier.

The county has paid its own workers' compensation claims since 2019, according to a 2022 Claremore Progress article submitted by Rogers County. District 3 Commissioner Ron Burrows said the premium the county used to pay to an insurance company to provide a worker's comp plan now goes to pay individual claims.

According to the 2022 article, Rogers County spent about $305,000 on insurance premiums before 2019, while claims totaled about $67,000 yearly. The county counted 281 employees last July; awards of $250 for each of them would cost $70,250, though personnel figures have likely shifted since then.

Burrows said to be able to pay out safety bonuses each year, the county's worker's comp claims must stay below a threshold he did not specify.

"This time of year, we do our evaluation to see if we are under the threshold ... not by much, not by much," Burrows said. "This year on worker's comp, we've had some claims, but we're still under that threshold. That would entitle every employee to $250, as per state statute, for a safety award."

Also Monday, the commissioners agreed to pay architect BKL $35,000 to replace the HVAC system in the currently unoccupied Rogers County Annex.

The Rogers County Annex is the former Department of Human Services building at 2020 Holly Road the county purchased for about $1.3 million in March. In June, the commissioners signed a $223,500 contract with BKL, the same firm that designed the Rogers County Courthouse, to provide designs and construction administration services for the annex project.

Burrows said the annex building's HVAC system sits between the ceiling and roof; DeLozier said that arrangement has caused leakages in the building.

"What this is is to move the mechanical rooms to a closet to make it much easier for Doug [Presley, the county's maintenance director] and his team to be able to walk into a mechanical room and service that equipment," Burrows said.

The $35,000 amendment approved Monday includes the cost of fully replacing the HVAC system as well as reworking floor plans to include the new closets.

The annex will house the offices of the Oklahoma State University Extension, Rogers County Planning Commission and the Rogers County Election Board in the near future as part of the county's broader renovation plans.

The commissioners also appropriated $47,341 from use tax collections toward a target system at the Rogers County Sheriff's Office firing range.

Sheriff's deputies have been shooting at the range, at an old rock quarry on East 410 Road near Lake Oologah, most of the year. Monday's appropriation funds a high-tech system with a three-year warranty; a Minnesota company, Range Systems Inc., offered the low bid.

The county also let a bid for a knee-high wall to protect the system from gunfire. At their Oct. 20 meeting, the commissioners chose Range Systems Inc. to also supply the wall – listed as an optional item – even though the two other bidding companies quoted a lower cost to build it.

County attorney Todd Wagner advised the commissioners Nov. 3 to cancel the bid and let it again.

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