IEA Leadership Hand-Delivers PPE to Sites Amid COVID-19 Pandemic
“The focus on safety from IEA is second to none.”
Over 4,000 gallons of hand sanitizer. Over 15,000 cloth, washable masks. Hundreds of pounds of rags.
Extreme times calls for extreme measures. The COVID-19 pandemic has reached every nook and cranny of life for people all across the world and has forced many businesses to make hard decisions. For IEA, working diligently to provide employees with the proper personal protective equipment is not just a COVID-19 response, but an integral part of the way the company does business.
“We’re definitely trying to do our part from the corporate side, not sit in our ivory towers, and provide our folks with all the hand sanitizers they could use,” said IEA Vice President of Risk Management, Health & Safety Kevin Turner. “Rags, masks, all those good things to keep everybody safe during the new world of COVID-19.”
But for IEA Executive Leadership, simply mass purchasing this essential PPE wasn’t enough. Chief Operating Officer Michael Stoecker loaded a 55-gallon drum of hand sanitizer in the back of his truck from Hotel Tango Distillery in Indianapolis, Indiana, and set course for the Scioto Ridge wind project in Kenton, Ohio. Meanwhile, Turner set course for Nebraska to deliver barrels of sanitizer to projects in the Great Plains. Some IEA companies, such as William Charles Construction, made the short drive south to pick up the sanitizer.
For Scioto Ridge Project Manager Nick Fee, the assistance was well appreciated. “We’ve had a rough time trying to find hand sanitizer,” said Fee. “The focus on safety at IEA is second to none. The executive leadership team hand delivering hand sanitizer goes a long way to proving that. Reinforcing to the field that we’re not in it alone, that we have backup.”
The initial delivery of over 1,100 gallons of hand sanitizer picked up from Hotel Tango Distillery was sent to the White Construction headquarters in Clinton, Ind., where it was prepared for disbursement across the family of companies country wide, from North Carolina to California, and Michigan to Alabama.
The immense effort did not go unnoticed. Mat Skebeck, safety manager at Scioto Ridge, feels fortunate to work for a company that works hard to ensure the safety of their workers. He realizes that the effects of hand sanitizer go beyond employee safety, but it keeps the jobsite open, which keeps paychecks in the hands of employees. “We’re fortunate that we can continue to come to the project every day and carry out our duties,” said Skebeck, also noting that as the situation changed, IEA company protocols changed, with every day they get better.
“We have been blessed that all of the businesses that we are in have been deemed essential infrastructure services,” said IEA Chief Operating Officer Michael Stoecker, who feels that the company has successfully risen to the challenge to ensure employee safety. Despite that effort, Stoecker is very clear about where his gratefulness lies. “I give all the credit to the craft and field people that have endured the bulk of the problems. . . [they have] improvised and have done what they have to do to keep these projects running. So, all of the credit really goes to the field personnel.”
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