Lawn, garden safety focus of event

Published 5:24 pm Friday, March 28, 2014

It’s that time of year — lawnmowers, weed-eaters and gardening tools and their operators are gearing up for another season of lawn care and/or gardening.

To help make sure those operators and equipment are prepared for another season, the Beaufort County Farm Bureau and East Coast Equipment are joining forces to present the inaugural Lawn & Garden Safety Day from 9 a.m. to noon Thursday at East Coast Equipment’s Washington site, 7145 U.S. Highway 17 North. Topics include lawnmower/ATV safety, power equipment safety, pesticide safety and free health assessments provided by East Carolina University agri-medicine personnel.

East Coast Equipment has presented similar events at some of its other locations in eastern North Carolina and Tidewater Virginia.

“The Farm Bureau had done with East Coast Equipment in another county. The Beaufort County Farm Bureau saw that. They had a pretty good turnout at it. They thought it would be something that we could duplicate here in Beaufort County, with a few changes that would be appropriate for our citizens here in the county,” said Jacob Search, a horticulturalist with the Beaufort County Cooperative Extension Service and an instructor for the event.

“The main accomplishment (desired) is the obvious one — to keep people safe as they work with their equipment and power tools,” Searcy said.

Searcy will discuss the safe use of pesticides.

“My personal objective, though, I’ll be talking about pesticide usage. I want homeowners to understand it’s easy for them to use pesticides correctly. I want them to make sure they understand how it’s used properly and what types of protective equipment they need to have in order to use and handle pesticides. Finally, I want them to be able to know how to dispose pesticides that are unwanted in a proper manner,” Searcy said.

Representatives from East Coast Equipment will discuss lawnmower safety, he noted.

The event includes lunch (register by calling Deborah Elks at 252-946-0169), free blood pressure and blood sugar screenings, door prizes and snacks.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.