JRE Current

Join us for a summer outing at the ballpark Great Lakes Loons style at Dow Diamond in Midland, Michigan, August 26, 2012. The game begins at 2:05pm. A buffet and non-alcoholic beverages will be provided at the Northern Lights Pavilion inside the stadium. Enjoy all the game day amenities of this state of the art minor league facility and enjoy some competitive single A baseball as the Loons (an affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers) battle the Lake County Captains (affiliates of the Cleveland Indians). Because of limited space, each employee is invited to bring one guest. To ensure your seats, employees are encouraged to rsvp to awood@jranck.com as soon as possible, as this outing is first come first serve.

Last week’s foreman’s meeting held at the Mt. Pleasant office did not lack interesting and emotional topics. During the roundtable portion of the meeting, Michael Hottinger, JRE Corporate Safety & Security Director (pictured above) announced his plan to retire from J. Ranck Electric, Inc. His expected retirement date will be June 29, 2012. “We sure do appreciate all you have done for us Michael, your shoes will be tough to fill,” Jim Ranck said to Michael after the room gave him a round of applause. In an email response after the meeting Angie Wood, JRE Human Resources Director, elaborated on the announcement, “While we will genuinely miss Michael, we are excited for him as he begins this new adventure in his life with his wife, Jeanne. We would like to thank him for his years of service with JRE and the passion that he brought to this company for his craft and everyone who worked here. It will be very difficult to fill his shoes, as he is one of a kind! We are currently interviewing applicants for Michael’s position and hope for the transition to be as smooth and seamless as possible.”

Starting off the morning, Rob Coppersmith with MITA (pictured left) discussed his work on the MI Damage Prevention Board which is working on Best Practices for Utility Locating. He explained that partially due to the board’s work, damages have been down yearly by 10 to 20 percent for the last seven years. Coppersmith shared some tips and best practices while navigating the MISS DIG program and discussed possible law changes in the upcoming year. Other topics discussed were MDOT spec changes, inventory, payroll and travel accommodation updates, as well as a presentation from Warehouse Manager Loren Wilcox on JRE’s GPS policy. He explained that most JRE road vehicles are now equipped with GPS devices that monitor idle time, speed, off hours use and average miles driven per day. Management will monitor the information in an effort to ensure safety of employees and surrounding populace, as well as help save on fuel and improve fleet efficiency.

Safety was touched on multiple times throughout the meeting. Michael highlighted the increasing trend of distracted driving-related crashes and presented a video highlighting the dangers of texting while driving and summarized the new DOT restrictions on mobile phone use:

FMCSA and PHMSA issued a final rule that restricts the use of hand-held devices by interstate commercial motor vehicle drivers (CMV) and intrastate hazmat drivers. The rule does not restrict or prohibit the use of hands-free devices. The final rule was published in the Federal Register on December 2, 2011 and took effect on January 3, 2012.

The meeting concluded with a presentation by Angie Wood on JRE’s zero-tolerance harassment policy. A video titled “In This Together” reinforced that policy by encouraging respect in the workplace and empowering every employee to have the courage to speak out against disrespect and harassment.