WINDHAM – The Maine Department of Labor has waived a $2,800 fine on the town of Windham, after finding that the municipality had remedied a variety of workplace safety violations discovered during a December inspection.

Following an unannounced inspection on Dec. 2, the state fined Windham, citing workplace conditions including inadequate or incomplete employee training programs and damaged and broken electrical outlets that violated numerous state occupational health and safety rules.

Two weeks later, Windham Town Manager Tony Plante appealed the fine, arguing that the money could be used toward addressing the safety violations.

In an April 30 letter to Plante, Pamela Taylor, the director of the department’s Bureau of Labor Standards, wrote that, since all the citations had been corrected, the town would be fined $250 for administrative fees, and nothing more.

“Please accept my thanks to you and your staff for expeditious attention in this matter,” Taylor wrote.

During the Dec. 2 inspection, department inspector Tammy Gross found eight violations at the Central Fire Station, one at the East Windham Fire Station, four at the North Windham Fire Station, three at the South Windham Fire Station, seven at the police department, 13 at the public works department, two at the recreation department, seven at Town Hall, one at the Windham Health Council Loan Closet, two at the Windham Public Library, and two at Windham Social Services.

At the North Windham Fire Station, Gross cited damaged and unsanitary forestry helmets. At the police department, Gross found that some officers had not taken an annual training on the appropriate level of hazardous material response, and that the department’s blood-borne pathogens program had not been reviewed or updated annually, as necessary. The recreation department had not completed an exposure control plan for employees that “are occasionally exposed to blood or other bodily fluids,” Gross wrote.

In a May 9 memo to the Windham Town Council, Plante wrote that town employees would work harder to stay in compliance with workplace safety standards in the future.

“We were working before, and have continued our efforts, on ensuring that policies, procedures, and training remain up to date,” he wrote. “We are also working on procedures to identify and correct issues before they become problems potentially subject to (Department of Labor) action in the future.”

“From the experience, we now all have a better appreciation of the importance of workplace safety and everything that entails,” Plante added.