When you call Somerset County 911, someone will answer the call
SOMERSET — There is a lot going on at the Somerset County 911 Center, including staffing issues, an ongoing situation across the country.
The Daily American sat down with the county commissioners and the county director of human resources for a discussion on how it is being handled.
Hiring and helping
"We are hiring dispatchers. We are training new dispatchers. We are committed to make sure that they are certified to answer the calls that are coming in," said Commissioner Gerald Walker.
Meanwhile, that training is extensive and takes time and resources, added Commissioner Colleen Dawson.
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Walker can often be found at the 911 center where he is helping wherever he is needed at least until a new 911 director is hired.
"I don't want to be the 911 director," Walker said. He talked about what that role would encompass and that is not his bailiwick.
Walker is enjoying helping the 911 center and his high regard for the 911 dispatchers has just been infused with what he has found since doing so.
For county Human Resources Director Jodi Lepley, she sees the same as Walker, the dispatchers supporting one another and presenting a "team effort" to get the job done.
"The pressure is immense and they take it seriously," Lepley said. She said she is struck by the "professionalism."
For example, something the dispatchers often face is something Walker did over the weekend. He discussed the call he received where the person on the other end said it took 15 minutes to dispatch a fire department to an incident. When he looked at the 911 log he found it actually took less than four minutes.
"It is just people's misinterpretation in an emergency," Walker said.
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People in distress are often panicked and the "perception of time that it is taking even longer than it is," agreed Dawson, who was part of the first responders in the county as a board member with the Somerset Area Ambulance Association prior to becoming a commissioner.
Statistics show the trend over the past years has reflected the county's commitment to improving response time of first responders wherever possible.
"I understand and everyone on the board understands the concern, because when you call 911 you want to be assured that help arrives as soon as possible," Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes said.
The 911 center is no different than the other agencies in the county facing employees retiring while others are just beginning and the county administrators are "filling in those gaps," she said.
Meanwhile, essentially until a new 911 director is hired and gets his or her feet wet, two former county administrators have stepped in where needed to temporarily help.
Former Somerset County 911 Coordinator Dave Fox and Somerset County Emergency Management Agency Director Rick Lohr are working out well in that role, according to the commissioners.
"Their role is not to dispatch or to supervise. Their role is in support of the current dispatchers. There are a number of supervisors still on the job. The challenge is the training of the new dispatchers," according to Tokar-Ickes.
Since the 911 department recently lost its new director, who was a seasoned dispatcher and the department's trainer, there is a need to get the infrastructure back in place, she said.
"Rick and Dave have decades of experience between them. We are going to default to those who know the field. They have provided the stability there that I think the 911 center has needed," Tokar-Ickes said.
As far as the struggle to keep the 911 center staff, well that is not unique to Somerset County. In fact, it is a nationwide problem, Tokar-Ickes said.
911 centers across the state are struggling with this, Tokar-Ickes said, "to the extent that PEMA (Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency) and the 911 advisory board at the state level have talked extensively about how we can recruit dispatchers."
What's next?
There will be a statewide branding campaign in the fall, according to the commissioners.
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"We will utilize that along with Somerset County and other counties that are doing their own recruitment efforts to try to talk about the profession of dispatching and why it is a great career choice for anyone wanting to go in the field," Tokar-Ickes said.
A career as a dispatcher can be stressful, fast-paced and hectic. It requires a person to make quick decisions and manage competing responsibilities while a life may hang in the balance. It is also rewarding, commissioners said.
That is the information the commissioners and state officials want to send out there.
Job well done
The commissioners had nothing but accolades for the 911 dispatchers, who are often the first voice that people hear during an emergency.
It is the call to 911 that starts the chain of first responders' action for county residents who many times are experiencing one of the worst of times in their lives.
"The 911 dispatchers are truly the first of the first responders," Tokar-Ickes said.
This article originally appeared on The Daily American: When you call Somerset County 911, someone will answer the call
