ATHOL — To address a steady increase in demand observed over the last nine months, Town Manager Shaun Suhoski said he will submit an article for the Oct. 15 Fall Town Meeting Warrant seeking $40,000 to hire a sixth full time dispatcher.
The goal is to have two public safety dispatchers per shift from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. He said, “combined with adding part-time personnel, this would begin to alleviate the stress surrounding filling the shifts and adequately staffing the center.”
Suhoski said Central Dispatch has been operating for nearly a year, and it has become apparent to management, department leadership and public safety staff that staffing levels during peak demand periods are not sufficient to meet both the call center and administrative demands.
“When resources are stressed — during busy periods of time — we need two dispatchers on staff,” said Suhoski.
Prior to centralizing all E-911, police, fire and EMS calls to Central Dispatch at the Athol Police Station, the town maintained services with a full-time staff of four public safety dispatchers. As part of the consolidation and the migration to Next Generation 911, the town added a fifth dispatcher in 2017.
The Next Generation 911 system gives first responders more accurate information by using a mapping and address database managed by MassGIS, which routes calls to the best possible public safety answering point.
Graphs compiled by Patrol Officer Todd Neale and other personnel show the number of calls to 911 increased from 2,998 in 2014 to 4,881 in 2018 (actual calls to date). Total calls for service increased from 12,279 to 16,500 during the same period. Radio transmissions increased from 56,021 in 2016 to 81,282 in 2018.
Fire Chief Duguay said, “Prior to centralizing our dispatch, all 911 police, fire and EMS calls were separated — the fire department would dispatch their calls, if a medical came in on 911 it would be transferred to the fire station and a firefighter would stay back in the station and do the dispatching.”
Radio transmissions have increased 41.9 percent because central dispatch is handling more of the fire and ambulance calls.
Suhoski said the data indicates average peak call volume is between the 8 to 9 a.m. to 8 to 9 p.m. range, and that the department handles more calls on weekdays than weekends.
“The purpose of the information is to help us schedule additional staff during likely peak hours,” he said.
On top of the difficulty filling shifts with five dispatchers on staff, Suhoski said there are a lot of vacant shifts during the 24/7 operation, and a shortage of part-timers, as well.
“We really need to begin staffing up, and for that purpose we’ll seek $40,000 to add a sixth dispatcher,” he said. “We believe it will help alleviate stress growing as we over-tax the workers — that’s not helpful. And, it will help to fill in the shifts when there’s a vacancy.”
Suhoski said meetings have been held with selectmen, fire, police, dispatch union leadership and staff.
“It’s been an honest discussion, one that we had to have,” he said.
Duguay said when the town opted for the police department to take over the dispatch, it was known that later, down the road, they’d have a better picture of the situation.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that we need to put on additional dispatchers — one now and one further on down the road,” said Duguay. “We’re at critical levels with the dispatchers, to the point where at times, one dispatcher’s just not enough. Depending on the incident where police and fire are both involved, it’s hard for that dispatcher to concentrate on a police transmission, when a fire transmission has to get through. It can get very confusing for the dispatcher — I don’t care how good the dispatcher is. The best scenario is to have two dispatchers. They can be cross-trained, but in a situation right now, we need more dispatchers.
“If we went to Gardner dispatch, we wouldn’t have to worry about this, but because we took it over, we need to think about the people on the street,” he said. “This is a huge public safety issue. We need to look out for these people. I’d hate to see something happen because of money, and we don’t hire another dispatcher. It can get crazy, scary, at times. If you can’t get another dispatcher to come back, and the one dispatcher has to handle all the calls, it’s concerning.”
Officer Todd Neale, who has been working on the project since the town took over the combined dispatch, said from the beginning they could see more than just the one dispatcher was needed.
“We knew that the workload would increase — radio transmissions by themselves should speak volumes,” he said, specifically noting the fire on Pequoig Avenue in May. “That was an almost overwhelming experience for the dispatchers. You can’t predict when the incidents are going to happen, but when they do happen, you can’t be behind the eight ball. You have to have the staff necessary to take care of the issue at hand. None of us want to be on the wrong side of an emergency that has gone wrong. We need to be in front of it.”
Neale said the town also needs to look toward the future.
“Much like Gardner wanted to bring us on as a 911 entity, we are the leader of the North Quabbin region,” said Neale. “We are the largest community, so if we take these steps now, we are also putting the foundation in place for the future — of possibly bringing on other communities. Why not start this now?”
Duguay thanked Neal, Deputy Fire Chief Jeffrey Parker and Lt. Ron Cote, saying, “We had a lot of meetings, discussions. Todd put a lot of time into this. We’re very concerned, and want to make things safer for the citizens and public safety personnel.”
Suhoski said the numbers speak for themselves, noting the data clearly shows the peak times and days, with weekdays busier than the weekend for all services. He said the scheduling will be geared toward alleviating the highest stress times.
The funding for the position is available. Suhoski said the certified new growth is more than $300,000, and the town had projected a more conservative figure. He believes there is $35,000 to $45,000 available that could be used to fund the position.
Selectman Lee Chauvette said, “This (dispatch) was never promoted as a cost savings. This was never promoted as anything other than bringing the best possible service we could to the community.”
Chauvette asked if a full-time dispatcher could be hired right away, rather than wait for the fall Town Meeting vote.
“I cannot hire a full-timer, and if the vote were not favorable, we would put the whole police budget at severe deficiency,” Suhoski said.
Neale said the department is aggressively advertising for dispatchers, and several people have been interviewed.
Melissa Hippler, lead dispatcher, has participated very actively in the interviews.
“We are in the process of trying to hire multiple part timers,” said Hippler. “I’m training training two people at a time right now to try to make up for the fifth dispatcher (which has a vacancy). We are running at four dispatchers right now, and one part-timer.”
Hippler said dispatch training takes six months.
“Three months on the police side, and three on the fire side,” she said. “It includes traveling to outside agencies for training, which is required by the state. We are looking to have training at the police station, that was recently approved, that will to cut down on the traveling.”