Allegheny Township gets $71K for keeping insurance claims to a minimum

Allegheny Township received $71,000 in dividends for keeping its insurance and workers compensation claims to a minimum last year.

It was no accident, according to township manager Greg Primm.

Primm said the township’s department leaders are constantly “preaching the gospel of safety” when training employees and they always look for ways to make jobs safer.

Some of the dividends received this year from the township’s pooled insurance trust were used to buy special equipment to prevent ditches from collapsing when workers are inside them. In the past, the township had rented such equipment.

Money also is being used to defray insurance costs, Primm said.

The township has a general fund budget of nearly $4 million.

The $71,000 dividend came from Franklin Park-based Municipal Risk Management, which provides property and liability insurance and workers compensation coverage for the township.

“It was a good year,” Primm said of the dividend.

Sometimes accidents can’t be prevented. Primm said, “there isn’t a year that goes by without a deer hitting a car,” and he also pointed to an incident where a semi-truck took down a traffic signal at Stanford Home Center on Route 356.

But those types of claims were kept to a minimum last year, and Primm said the township implemented safety recommendations by a third-party vendor hired by Municipal Risk Management, which evaluated the township’s fleet of vehicles and equipment.

Allegheny Township was among about 275 members of the pooled insurance trust that received a combined $7 million in dividends for workers compensation coverage and among 245 members that received a combined $4 million from the property and liability insurance program, according to John McConaha of Municipal Risk Management.

The nonprofit was established 37 years ago, when few companies were willing to insure local governments and the ones that did charged high prices, according to McConaha.

The members, made up of municipalities and municipal authorities, appear to like receiving the dividends as membership has increased by 20% in the past two years, he said.

Municipal Risk Management doesn’t advertise and they don’t take just anybody.

“We look at the quality of the administration, finances, and then look at the experience — the past claims and how the municipalities run their safety program,” McConaha said.

“If you are lackadaisical in any way, we don’t want to be involved because that would impact other members,” he said.