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6 THE DAVEY BULLETIN | January/February 2018 ASK THE PRESIDENT Q.As we enter a new year, what are your top priorities for the company? A. Through the management transition last year and into the new year, I was often asked where I see our priorities in the coming years. And my top answers were always safety and employee engagement. And they're very much linked. That's because we know actively engaged employees are far more likely to be safer, more productive and happy with their career. So, that's really the goal. Safe, engaged employees. But to do that, everyone needs to elevate personal accountability for not just themselves, but for their whole team. This means being open communicators and talking about close calls. It means taking the initiative to correct a co-worker if you see some- thing unsafe. It means, as a company, we want to learn from our mistakes and celebrate our successes so we all learn from our collective experiences. There are no excuses for lacking personal accountability, and no shortcuts to doing it the right way. Our safety personnel certainly provide us with the roadmap, but we cannot put enough safety people in the field to make us all safe. This is on us, and we must do it right all the time. The reason we commit so many resources to safety, is because it is in your best interest. You want to return home every day safely. We want that too. It's that simple. DAVEY HELPS MILITARY CLIENTS DIG OUT OF HISTORIC SOUTHERN SNOW A paralyzing 5.3 inches of snowfall shut down the airport and military bases in Charleston, South Carolina – until Davey crews stepped up. The blizzard set a new snowfall record for Charleston, which is home to Joint Base Charleston, where Davey Commercial Landscape Services (CLS) maintains the landscapes in the base's residential neighborhoods for client Hunt Military Family Housing. The base, which is comprised of Navy and Air Force operations, shares the runways on the nearby Charleston International Airport with several airlines and aircraft maker Boeing. Snow plows in South Carolina are rare. So Blane Pshigoda, government/ projects division manager, reached out to the CLS territories in Cincinnati and Columbus looking for trucks. "Matt Ganoe, the branch manager in Cincinnati, jumped in a truck himself and brought two more trucks with him," Pshigoda says. "I think that speaks volumes for what they did to help us out. They weren't due to get a chance of snow for a few days, so it was a good opportunity for them to help out their fellow Davey employees. And that's what they did." The first Ohio crews drove through the night. Dan Morgan, regional manager, government/projects, and his crew leader in Charleston, Steve Freeman, put them in a hotel to rest when they arrived. Morgan and his team got to work. They started with the residential neighborhoods on the base. The base's officers saw the excellent job the crews were performing and asked Morgan to tackle the rest of the base's roadways. Soon, Davey trucks were plowing the main runway at the airport. Morgan said they worked in shifts, with the Ohio CLS employees taking over after resting and then starting a rotation with the Charleston crews. With below-freezing temperatures lingering, Morgan kept Davey trucks busy clearing snow for several days. He said plowing at the airport fulfilled a dream of his as a commercial truck operator. "To get out there on a wide open space and just go, I was really excited about it, and the crews were excited too," Morgan said. FIELD NOTES Above: A Davey truck clears the main runway at Charleston International Airport in South Carolina after a historic snowfall in the area. Pat Covey Davey President and CEO