WINNSBORO — Fairfield County stopped being the Susan Lucci of the S.C. Association of Counties Award Ceremonies this January. This year, after years of attending the ceremonies and not receiving awards, the county received the Outstanding Safety Achievement Award at the Insurance Trusts Membership Meeting and received an award for its new waste tire facility.

County Council Chairman David Ferguson said he was proud of the county because “we finally received awards (at the two-day event) instead of being there and seeing all these other counties recognized for having ideas similar to things we had been working on, in some cases, for years.”

The waste tire facility earned an award because of the timeliness with which any safety issue is handled there — within half a day.

Davis Anderson, deputy administrator for Fairfield County, said working in that type of safe environment reduces costs to citizens and benefits county employees. Fewer missed days and/or workman’s compensation cases allow the county to keep overhead costs lower and to maximize production efforts while still taking care of employee safety.

The new facility includes a ramp that enables employees to load tires into trailers using forklifts. Mechanically loading the tires makes employees less likely to be injured or face long term complications work at the site.

The tire facility has a new covered storage area for the tires. That area will help prevent snakes and rodents entering the tires and thereby reduce employee exposure to those hazards.

The efforts are a bright spot for Fairfield County which is a member of the S.C. Counties Workers’ Compensation Trust and the S.C. Counties Property and Liability Trust.