Just weeks after losing its permission to take 911 calls, Knox County’s emergency dispatch is hiring — hoping it can add and train enough staff to resume its role as the public safety answering point for the county.
The Knox County Regional Communications Center closed in early August for lack of staff after operating with only five out of the normal 13 employees since January. Earlier this month, the center lost its permission from the state to take 911 calls and be a public safety answering point.
In the meantime, Knox County emergency calls are being routed to Waldo County Regional Communications Center. The dispatchers there then send computerized messages to dispatchers in Knox County who alert emergency responders.
In order to reinstate its position as a public safety answering point, Knox County Regional Communications Center will have to hire and train enough staff to handle a 24-hour answering service, said Susan Faloon, media liaison for the Maine Public Utilities Commission.
Knox is hoping to get back up to 13 employees, said Edward Glaser, District 1 commissioner for Knox County. To attract more employees, they’re working on wage increases and hiring a consultant to determine the best plan of action.
“The way we have structured it, all of those 13 people have been certified to do all of the different jobs that a dispatch center has — answer 911, dispatch both police and fire — and it might not be necessary to structure it quite that way,” Glaser said. “Though we’re still going to have 13 people, it may be that not all of them need the same kind of licensing.”
For now, Knox’s dispatch center has five full-time employees, six potential per-diem employees, and offers for full-time positions to another three, Glaser said. But not all of those employees can be trained for 911 dispatch straight away, since they need classes from the state, and those classes aren’t being offered right now.
Glaser said Knox County hopes to get this done within six months. During this period, Faloon said the Emergency Services Communications Bureau will closely monitor the dispatch center’s progress.
While Knox County works through those issues, the Rockport Select Board voted to withhold its payment to the dispatch center until everything seems to be stable.
But for now, Glaser said everything is going the way it’s supposed to. There may be some technical issues, but Glaser said those will be handled as they arise.
“Sometimes when it doesn’t work is when you learn the most,” Glaser said.
In Waldo County, the dispatch center is fully staffed, so they’re able to take on the extra work for now, said Michael Larrivee, director of communications for Waldo County.
But response times are a concern so Waldo County’s dispatch center is changing computer systems to make sure response times don’t change for both Waldo and Knox, Larrivee said.
The computer systems are set up so Knox dispatchers can see what Waldo employees are writing in real-time, and can alert emergency responders as soon as possible. Glaser said there may be issues with Waldo County’s dispatchers being familiar with the areas in Knox County, but for now, nothing like that has arisen.
“We’re trying to come up with ideas for the long run, as well,” Larrivee said. “So if this were ever to happen again to either county, then we have something in place to help each other.”
