Photo cutline: Chris Dilbeck (center), electric superintendent, and Jason McPherson (right), city administrator for the City of Marlow, accept the Tom Rider Professional Development Award from Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma board president Tyler Cline (left).
The Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma (MESO) awarded the City of Marlow the association’s Tom Rider Professional Development Award at the Public Power Conference on April 23 in Norman.
This award recognizes an individual or organization demonstrating a commitment to promoting and/or participating in education in areas including but not limited to leadership, communications, customer service, and team building for themselves or their organization.
“Safety is the first step to success in everything we do at the city,” said Jason McPherson, city administrator. “Without a safety-first environment, a municipally-owned electric utility cannot focus on customer needs or reliability. It truly was an honor to be recognized.”
The City of Marlow has minimum training standards in place to maintain a safe working environment, McPherson added.
Recognizing Marlow’s safety record – being recognized for safe operations by MESO six times since 2008 and by the American Public Power Association four times since 2019 – the MESO Board of Directors selected to present this coveted award to the team from Marlow.
Marlow won its first safety award in 2008 before being recognized again in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019 by MESO. Marlow has also received nationwide recognition for safety in 2020 and 2021 from the American Public Power Association.
Marlow has also been recognized for excellence in reliability by MESO in 2020 and 2021 and by the American Public Power Association in 2022.
MESO believes it is the goal for all utilities that every employee goes home safely every night. The association further believes this is accomplished through a commitment to teamwork – a cornerstone of professional development training.
The Tom Rider Professional Development Award was created to honor Tom’s career of service to MESO and Oklahoma’s cities and towns that are delivering personal and professional growth and development training.
About MESO (Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma, Inc.)
The Municipal Electric Systems of Oklahoma, Inc. (MESO) exists to serve municipal professionals. MESO provides numerous skills training and professional development programs. Our mission is to enhance our members’ value to their customers through industry best-practice programs, training, and services. The association serves more than 60 Public Power utilities in Oklahoma and several in neighboring states.