Dispatch Center Staff Honored During ‘Telecommunicators Week’

By Shannon Hicks

First Selectman Joe Borst visited the Newtown Emergency Communications Center (NECC) on April 14 to thank the men and women who staff the communications center at Town Hall South 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for their dedication. He brought with him a proclamation officially recognizing April 12–18 as National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week.

The town’s emergency communications center, which is located in Town Hall South with the police station, handles all local police, fire, and ambulance calls, as well as the town’s Emergency 911 system. It also manages the town’s internal telephone network. Maureen Will is the town’s director of communications.

The center has a staff of ten: Corey Robinson, supervisor; full-time staffers Jen Barocsi, Chris Campbell, Pete Donovan, Mike Easter, John Facto, Eric Hirsch, Tom Ramsdell, and Kajun Tuite; and part-time staff members Bob Nute and John Reed.

Newtown created its combined dispatch center in 2001, unifying the radio control for all three emergency services in one location.

The Newtown dispatching staff is quite qualified, Ms Will told The Bee in July 2008, when she accepted the position as communications director. “The staff is very competent and capable.”

The dispatch center is accredited by The National Academies of Emergency Dispatch.

Mr Borst’s proclamation recognized the dispatchers, in part, for their dedicated daily service to “daily serve the citizens for Newtown by answering E-911 calls for police, fire. and emergency medical services and by dispatching the appropriate assistance as quickly as possible.”

He also credited the NECC dispatchers for playing “a vital role in the protection of human life and property in our community and provide a critical communication link between the citizen and police, fire, and emergency medical service providers ... while enduring long shifts and handling frequent life and death emergencies, Emergency Telecommunicators set high standards in performing their duties in a dedicated, diligent, and compassionate manner.”

The dispatchers were acknowledged for their “work to improve the emergency response capabilities of the communication systems through their leadership and training and are the vital link between the citizen or victim and the public safety provider who may apprehend a criminal, save their possessions from fire, save their life or the life of a loved one.”

Finally, the first selectman’s proclamation recognized the crucial role the members of NECC’s staff plays “in protecting life and property.”

Training is ongoing for the staff of NECC. Mr Robinson is participating in a three-night communications supervisor class at Sandy Hook Fire & Rescue’s main station this week (April 14–16) and Mr Campbell will be taking an Active Shooter Class on April 17, said Ms Will. Mr Facto and Mr Ramsdell are signed up for a Communications Training Officer workshop in May.

“I’m really proud of my staff,” Ms Will said this week. “For 2008 they answered 7,164 E-911 calls for service and for the first three months of this year they have answered 1,668.”

Ms Will had arranged for cake and gifts for each of her staff members. The celebration was brief. NECC staff cannot take long breaks away from the public phone lines and emergency operations radios, after all.