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www.greenevillesun.com
THE GREENEVILLE SUN BENCHMARKS EDITION Saturday, March 17, 2012
Awards And Honors Received By Several Local Companies BY O.J. EARLY STAFF WRITER
Several companies operating in Greene County received notable awards in 2011. DTR, DONALDSON COMPANY In August 2011, the Tennessee Department of Workforce Development announced that two Greene County manufacturing companies — DTR Tennessee, Inc. and The Donaldson Company, Inc. — had been selected to receive the Commissioner’s Award of Excellence for Workplace Safety. The year 2011 also marked the third straight year that DTR had earned the award. The honors were presented during the 34th Annual Tennessee Safety and Health Congress at the Gaylord Opryland hotel in Nashville. The awards were given based on two primary standards. First, the award honors employers and employees who have worked a select number of hours without experiencing a lost workday case. Second, companies must maintain total injury and illness incidence rates that are below the national average. At the time the award was given, DTR Tennessee, Inc. had 802 employees who, together with their employers, had worked more than 1,485,000 hours without a lost-time injury case, and went 5,272,255 hours since their last lost-time injury. The Donaldson Company, Inc. had 106 employees who had worked a stretch of more that 434,000 hours without a lost-time injury. LMR PLASTICS For the fourth straight year, LMR Plastics was honored as a “Top Performing Strategic Supplier” by the Minneapolis, Minn.-based Donaldson Company. The award is given based on Donaldson’s own criteria-type program — Donaldson Buys Value Program. LMR Plastics, founded
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
DTR Tennessee, Inc., was honored in August with its third consecutive Commissioner’s Award of Excellence for Workplace Safety from the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development. Accepting the award in Nashville are, from left, Eileene Reynolds, Plant Nurse for DTR Tennessee, Inc., and Neil Gfellers, DTR Safety Engineer. Commissioner Karla Davis, at right, presented the award. in 1973 in Greeneville, has been owned and managed by the Terry Leonard family since 1996. The company manufactures custom plastic injection-molded products and supplies them to a number of industries. LYON METAL ROOFING For the second consecutive year, Lyon Metal Roofing was ranked as one of the nation’s top 5,000 fastest-growing private companies. Inc. Magazine included the roofing business in its annual Inc. 5000 list in December 2011. When the recognition was given, Lyon Metal Roofing, headquartered in Piney Flats and with a sales location in Greeneville, had a threeyear growth rate of 74 percent, and saw its revenue jump from $7.9 million in 2007 to $13.8 million in 2010. Lyon Metal Roofing was ranked the 2885th fastest-growing company on the magazine’s list. SUMMERS TAYLOR Local and regional asphalt pavement projects by Summers Taylor won three separate 2011 Quality in Construction Awards for excellence in construction from the National
David Nester, manufacturing engineer with The Donaldson Company, stands with Karla Davis, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development, after Commissioner Davis presented The Donaldson Company with a Commissioner’s Award of Excellence for Workplace Safety. The presentation was made in a ceremony at the Gaylord Opryland hotel in Nashville. ect began in early spring 2011, and the Washington County project started in early summer 2011. The Interstate 81 project in Greene County was completed in early summer 2011, and the project in Washington County was completed by late summer. The third award recognized the company’s work on Phase II of the Greeneville-Greene County Municipal Airport improvement project. Phase II of the airport project began in early September and finished in December. The overall project is continuing.
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Summers Taylor Vice President Ted Lane Bryant, at right, accepts one of the three 2011 Quality in Construction Awards won by the company. Presenting the award is Kim Snyder, 2011 Chairman of the National Asphalt Pavement Association Board of Directors. Asphalt Pavement Association (NAPA.) Ted Lane Bryant, Summers-Taylor vice president, accepted the company’s awards at a special ceremony in January 2012 during the association’s 57th annual meeting in Palm Desert, Calif. Bryant said the company won separate national awards for its work on Interstate 81 projects in
Greene and Washington counties, and at the Greeneville-Greene County Municipal Airport. The Interstate 81 project in Greene County was from mile marker 36 to mile marker 45. The Washington County project was for the portion of the roadway from mile marker 49 to mile marker 53. The Greene County proj-
THE GREENEVILLE SUN Current and former staff members of The Greeneville Sun received seven of a possible 14 first-place honors in the Sun’s circulation bracket in the annual competition among Tennessee newspapers that receive the Associated Press report. The 2011 awards, presented in May, honored work completed in 2010. The entries were judged by journalists at AP member newspapers in Oklahoma. Three of the seven first-place awards won by
the Sun went to longtime Staff Photographer Phil Gentry, who took first in: Spot News Photography, where he also won second and third place honors; Sports Photography; and Photojournalism. It was the third consecutive year that Gentry, who retired May 13, had won the Photojournalism category. In two of the three years, including 2011, he won first, second and third places in Photojournalism. Other first-place honors in the 2011 competition went to: Staff Writer Amy Rose, for Daily Deadline Reporting; Sports Editor Wayne Phillips, for Sports-Outdoor Reporting; the Sun staff for Best Website, for the second consecutive year; and the staff in the category of Multimedia, where Sun entries also received second and third place, for a sweep of the category for the second consecutive year. Brian Cutshall is the newspaper’s Director of Online Operations. In July, the Sun wa also awarded First Place for Best Sports Photograph in its circulation category in the annual Tennessee Press Association competition, for a photo by Gentry.
Clinton Foundation Honors Tusculum College Business Program Tusculum College’s “Help Me Help You” program was selected as one of the top innovative programs in the nation by the Clinton Global Initiative University, a national foundation that recognizes i n novative projects with a large impact and global reach. The program and its co-founder, Luis Zamora, a junior business and economics major from Santiago, Chile, will be recognized at the Foundation’s global conference in Washington, D.C., the weekend of March 30. “This is a wonderful achievement and recognition for Luis, his program, and for Tusculum College,” said President Nancy B. Moody. Every year, the Clinton Global Initiative Un iversity rev iews thousands of projects and programs from all over the world in order to select the most promising commitments to action. This year, the commitment made by cofounders Zamora and Rodrigo Gimenez has become the first from Tusculum College and the first from Chile to be recognized by the Initiative. Former President Bill Clinton launched the Clinton Global Initiative University in 2007 to engage the next generation of leaders on college campuses around the world, according to the organization’s website, www.cgiu.org TWO MAIN POINTS At the conference in Washington, D.C., Zamora will be representing not only Tusculum Col-
in January. LOCAL SPONSORS The first year of the program has been funded by sponsors Scott M. Niswonger, the Greeneville businessman and philanthropist; Tom Ferguson, president and CEO of the Greene County Partnership; and Atmos Energy Corp. “It’s an amazing program,” said Ferguson, when informed of the announcement by the Clinton Foundation. “It’s a real success story.” “ This young man [Zamora] is driven and talented,” Ferguson said. “He’s an entrepreneur and is going to be a very successful business person. “It’s just a tremendous recognition to the college and certainly speaks well of Mr. Zamora as a student,” Ferguson added.
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
This is the inaugural class of the Tusculum College “Help Me Help You” program, recognized in February by the Clinton Global Initiative University. From left to right in the front row, are: Suzanne Richey; Scott M. Niswonger, a sponsor of the program; Kim Ward, Gene Maddox, Lynette Price, Eric Price and Dr. Michelle Freeman; second row: Dr. Tom McFarland, Kalie Smith, Dr. Antonio Bos, Brian Ward, Terry Webb, Kirstie Gust, Felicia Waters and Robin Shepherd; third row: Isiah Lymon, Paul Bergvin, Andreas Jarquin, Matthew McKeever, David Talley, Dr. Greg Hawkins, Steven Hollingshead, Julia Newman and Luis Zamora; back row: Andy Goellner, Samantha Underwood and Steve Gehret.
lege, but also the nation of Chile. Zamora created the program along with Gimenez, in partnership with the University of Chile, located in Santiago, Chile. Gimenez serves as director of operations in Chile. The recognition from the Clinton Global Initiative University includes two main points that Zamora and Gimenez
have committed to: • implementing a small business support program with a focus on theoretical, practical and emotional aspects of “Help Me Help You” in underdeveloped regions such as areas of Appalachia and countries such as Chile, and • sharing the program at no charge with any business student and/or academic institution that would like to implement
“Help Me Help You” in personal skills through their respective coun- a variety of unique, globtries. ally-tested activities. The program at TusABOUT ‘HELP ME HELP YOU’ culum College started in The program, operated fall 2011 with nine parby Tusculum College’s ticipants and eight monibusiness students and tors completing a 10-week students in the Bonner course that aims to creLeader Program, is com- ate a mutual learning mitted to helping its par- environment between ticipants increase profits, students and small-busicreate a business plan, ness-owners. expand their respective The spring semester networks, and improve program had 12 new their practical and inter- participants and began
‘AMBITIOUS ENDEAVOR’ Ferguson recalled that he had met with Zamora when the student was first trying to put together the “Help Me Help You” program. “It was an ambitious endeavor, and he’s pulled it off — and I think it has sustainability,” Ferguson said. The Clinton Global Initiative University challenges college students to address global issues with practical, innovative solutions. Members are encouraged to take concrete steps to solve problems by building relationships, creating action plans, participating in hands-on workshops, and working together as they complete their projects.