John Dickerman, working with a crew from a Mankato contractor, was
installing trussing for a roof at a height of about 25 to 30 feet when
he fell.
Interrupting
his retirement to pitch in, a 69-year-old building construction worker
fell to his death at a job site in Jordan, authorities said Monday.
John
A. Dickerman, of Mankato, Minn., fell Friday while helping build an
expansion on an industrial equipment coating business, said Police Chief
Brett Empey.
“He
came back to help that [contractor] temporarily” with a job at
Accu-rite Powder Coating and Surface Prep on 320 Ervin Industrial Drive,
Empey said.
Dickerman
was working with a crew from a Mankato contractor, R.L. Wells
Construction. He was installing trussing for a roof at a height of
roughly 25 to 30 feet when he fell about 11:15 a.m., Empey said.
Along
with police, officials in Minnesota with the Occupational Safety and
Health Administration (OSHA) are also investing the incident.
OSHA
fined R.L. Wells after an inspection in 2006 found that one of its
employees was working at a height of 10 to 15 feet in the basket of an
all-terrain forklift without wearing a safety harness.
A
message was left with company owner Randy Wells seeking comment about
Dickerman’s death and whether he was wearing a harness at the time.
Dickerman
graduated from what is now Minnesota State University Mankato with
majors in mathematics and industrial arts. He worked in general
contracting construction for 35 years for WEB Contracting in Mankato. He
was a part owner and a crew leader until about 10 years ago. WEB was
not the contractor handling the work at Accu-rite.
WEB co-owner Jerry Williams said Dickerman would occasionally fill in on construction crews during his retirement.
Dickerman’s survivors include his wife of 41 years and five grown children.