DPW, Recreation Employees Rack Up Injury-Free Hours

If Fair Lawn's and employees were baseball stars, the best comparison would be to Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr.

Ripken played in a Major League Baseball record 2,632 straight games, but those two borough departments built an impressive streak of their own from Jan. 1, 2008 to Dec. 31, 2010. Over that three-year period, they logged hundreds of thousands of consecutive work hours without suffering a disabling injury.

The run of durability earned them occupation safety awards from New Jersey's Department of Labor and Workforce Development—and recognition at Tuesday night's Borough Council meeting. Here's the breakdown of consecutive hours of work without a disabling injury:

• Water Generation Division, 29,442 hours

• Vehicle Maintenance Division, 139,525 hours

• Roads Division, 47,437 hours

• Sewer Division, 43,694 hours

• Department of Recreation and Parks, 79,828 hours