Town Seeks A Director For New Emergency Dispatch Center

By Andrew Gorosko

By Wednesday this week, the town had received 10 applications for the post of director of emergency communications, a new town position created to oversee operations at the planned combined dispatch center at the police station.

The director will manage all public safety-related radio dispatching for police, fire, and ambulance services in town.

Currently, dispatching for the town’s five volunteer fire companies and the Newtown Volunteer Ambulance Corps is done in a dispatch center in the basement of Edmond Town Hall at 45 Main Street. Police dispatching is now done about one-half mile to the south within the police station on the upper level of Town Hall South at 3 Main Street.

The combined dispatch center, which will soon be built in what is now the records room at the police station, will house dispatching equipment and dispatchers for all three emergency services. Two dispatchers will man the combined dispatch center around the clock. It will centralize and modernize town radio dispatching to streamline emergency services operations.

Qualifications for the director’s job include an associate’s degree in a related field or five years of supervisory experience, preferred, but not required. The director must have at least two years’ experience as an emergency dispatcher. The director also must have effective communications skills, plus a working knowledge of Emergency 911 dispatching and radio telecommunications equipment. The post has a salary range of $40,000 to $45,000 annually.

Carole Ross, the town’s human resources administrator, said Tuesday selecting an emergency communications director will be an important decision.

The town has established a Communications Operations Board which will oversee the combined dispatch center, Ms Ross said. The panel, whose chairman is civilian Lois Pratt, has two representatives each from the police, fire, and ambulance services.

The board will review candidates for the director’s job and will make a hiring recommendation to the first selectman, who will make the final hiring and salary decision.

The emergency communications director will work with the board and with the first selectman in setting standards for employee selection, training, and supervision. The director will work under the general supervision of the first selectman and follow performance standards established by the board.

Interviews for the emergency communications director’s post will be held in June, Ms Ross said. The director is slated to start work July 1. Ms Ross said town officials hope the combined dispatch center is ready to begin operations by July 1.

Among those who have applied for the director’s job are some of the town’s radio dispatchers, Ms Ross said. The person chosen for the post will serve as the head of a new town department, she said. The director will supervise 13 people, eight of whom are full-time dispatchers, and five of whom are part-time, she said.

Town officials initially had considered locating the combined dispatch center in the lower level of Town Hall South, directly beneath the police station. But to make the dispatch center more visible and accessible to the public, it was decided to locate it in the police station after the station is modified.

A study committee which spent 21 months reviewing creation of a combined dispatch center found that having a centralized facility would improve town emergency services operations.

Better communications equipment would provide faster emergency response times; better trained personnel would provide better service; a team effort would provide faster response times; and a simplified dispatching process would provide better emergency coverage, according to the panel. Having all dispatching facilities located in one place would save the time that is now lost in relaying information from one dispatching facility to the other, according to the panel.