Dive Brief:
Council members of the Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County proposed a bill this week designed to raise oversight and standards on construction projects funded by the city-county consolidated government, the Tennessean reported.
The bill was announced Tuesday, on what would have been Gustavo Enrique Ramirez’s 17th birthday. Ramirez died after he fell 11 stories while working a summer job at a Nashville construction site. At 16, Ramirez was too young to be working at height.
The “Get it Right” bill would set stricter standards for awarding Metro construction contracts, prevent contracting companies with major workplace violations within the last three years and set new standards for safe workplaces while providing incentives to contractors who commit to those standards.
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Pete Meenen and the Tennesseans We Lost to COVID-19
The state’s first resident claimed by a virus that went on to kill many more
On March 21, the Brentwood Family YMCA shared the news that Pete Meenen, a greeter at the gym and community center for more than 20 years, had died. He was the first person in Tennessee to die from COVID-19.
“Perhaps few faces in a YMCA are as recognizable as the greeter who meets the morning faithful, the early risers who start their day with us when the Welcome Center is a little quieter than usual,” the Brentwood Y’s operations executive, Roger D. Grove, wrote on Facebook. “For more than 20 years, Pete was that face in our YMCA, and his loss will be deeply felt by all of us, our staff and our members.”