Mission: The Safety committee promotes safe digging practices and supports this mission by coordinating the annual Golden Backhoe Awards held during the GUCC Annual Conference.

Each March, the Golden Backhoe Awards, including the Lester Feathers Golden Backhoe Safety Award, are presented to recognize outstanding commitment to safety. The Safety Committee strives to make these presentations engaging and memorable by showcasing the achievements of the award recipients.

We are always exploring new ideas to strengthen our efforts and enhance future award presentations.  If you have any suggestions or would like to see new elements introduced, please submit your ideas to the Safety Committee Chair.

Update: 12_16_2025  The 2025 Golden Backhoe Nomination Form has been loaded.  If you look on the right side with the clickable links you will find it at the 2nd to bottom listing .

Update: 10_30_2025- Notice from Brett Brugh and Roy Rogers has been provided to the Board to step down from the Safety Committee Co-Chairs.  They have spoken with Matt Bergen with Fayette County who will step up and take the committee lead.

***December 2021-  Donnie Murphy who has led the Safety Committee for more than 7 years has retired and turned the reigns over to Brett Brugh with Online Locating Services and Roy Rogers with Blount Constructioin.  The Spring 2025 Annual conference will be held at the Westin Jekyll Conference location scheduled for Tuesday March 25 – March 28, 2025.   

Each year the GUCC Safety Committee promotes safe digging practices throughout the State of Georgia. The Golden Backhoe winner can be from contracting companies of all types, municipalities, gas companies, electrical companies and water/sewer companies and etc., this list goes on. This Award is not limited to a chosen few. Anyone person and or crew/company that digs can qualify for this exemplary award. The nomination forms are filled out and submitted to the GUCC Safety Committee Chairman, at the end of August of each nominating year. From this list, one company and or crew is chosen as a winner of the Golden Backhoe Award from each D.O.T. Regions. Out of these 7 D.O.T. Regions of the Golden Backhoe Winners, The” Lester E. Feathers Damage Prevention Award” is chosen and is awarded to the crew/company that has outshined the others and has gone that one step further to make sure they maintained a high level of safety throughout the year in keeping their men and women safe.

The Safety Committee announces the winners of the Golden Backhoe Award and the Lester E. Feathers Damage Prevention Award with a creative program that presents the winners to an audience of the conference attendees. We recognize the winner from each region and applaud their hard work in damage prevention.  These awards are one of the highlights of the Annual Conference.

2019 Safety Winners