GRANITE FALLS — The Yellow Medicine County Board Tuesday voted unanimously to contract with SafeAssure for a safety training program for the county employees.

Chad Peterson, president of SafeAssure, appeared before the board to present the proposal and a contract to adopt a set of training programs designed for county’s needs at a cost of $9,786.

County Administrator Peg Heglund said she discovered SafeAssure while doing online research on safety trainers to replace the one presently hired by the county.

Heglund said that she checked with neighboring counties who had been using SafeAssure and received all good reviews.

“We’ve been in business for over 20 years,” Peterson said. “We’re a privately owned, OSHA-compliant company. We guarantee that the program is right for you.”

Peterson also said the company will help develop annual safety goals along with the Safety Committee using the AWAIR (A Workplace Accident and Injury Reduction Act) format.

“How many more employee meeting times are we going to get?” Commissioner Gary Johnson asked. “I don’t want to overdo it.”

He said that back when he was working, they had one safety training a year that was enough.

Johnson asked Commissioner Glen Kack if he had felt comfortable with the amount of training he had received when working under similar circumstances.

“I guess,” Kack said.

“If we’re spending an extra $1,000 to $2,000 and saving one claim it’s worth it,” Commissioner Ron Antony said.

Between the motion and the vote, Johnson also asked for a clarification on the amount of money that could be spent on this contract before having to put it out on bids.

Both Heglund and County Attorney Keith Helgeson said that since it was a service and not a product, the board was not required to put it out on bids. Additionally, there was a matching grant the county could apply for that would reduce the county’s input to under $5,000, Helgeson said.

The board then voted unanimously to enter into the contract with SafeAssure for its employee safety training needs. With the acceptance of this contract SafeAssure agrees to provide YMC, at the time of execution of this contract, a certificate of insurance with proper coverage lines and a minimum of $2,000,000 in insurance limits of general liability and statutory for workers or damages of whatever nature due to negligence, alleged negligence, acts of omissions of SafeAssure to third parties.