No More Good Guys to Help?

MSHA is planning to remove the Small Mine Compliance positions (guys like Evan Church, in our local area). This means that you will no longer have somebody available to come out and look over your site and give you safety tips who actually works for MSHA.

Here is the link to the MSHA Small Mine Office website:
http://www.msha.gov/smallmineoffice/smallmineoffice.htm

Following is an excerpt from a letter written last March by Mike Davis, (the interim head of MSHA before Joe Main). It was in response to the outcry from small mine operators about MSHA inspectors:

"As government officials, we all have a duty to treat every member of the public professionally and with dignity and respect. We must develop and implement the most effective ways to produce the ultimate result - saving lives and preventing injuries and illnesses. We will use all of the tools available to us to achieve this result, including firm and fair enforcement, education and training, and technology."

Is that attitude now changing with the new director installed? What about the education and training part of that paragraph for those with small mines? Is MSHA more interested in handing out violations than in safety training? MSHA's funding has been expanded by millions of dollars in the past year, so why are they deleting the Small Mine Compliance people? I'm just wondering about the reasoning behind MSHA's decision in this matter.