Dispatchers begin training for new 911 center
By MELISSA WEAVER
The Daily Inter Lake
Dispatchers from the Whitefish Police Department are the first people to begin the transition to Flathead County’s new consolidated 911 center, set to be fully operational by this summer.
Whitefish Police dispatchers Susan Nickerson and Chad Wade are training under dispatchers at the Flathead County Sheriff’s office, learning a new computer system as well as how to handle fire and emergency medical service calls.
Training of the dispatchers started Monday. The Whitefish dispatch center has been closed.
Nickerson and Wade have a combined four years of experience dispatching for law enforcement. Learning the new systems has been both “challenging and exciting,” Nickerson said. “It’s going very good,” she said of the transition so far.
The consolidated 911 center, set to be fully staffed and operational by July, will merge the county’s four emergency dispatch centers into one facility, contain the new emergency operations headquarters for Flathead County and serve as a depot for county emergency equipment.
The new 911 center is in northwest Kalispell near the Forest Service and Department of Natural Resources and Conservation buildings.
The Whitefish Police dispatchers are the first to begin the transition.
Dispatchers from Columbia Falls Police, Kalispell Police and the Sheriff’s Office all will begin training in the next few months.
Michelene Provo, manager of the Sheriff’s Office 911 facility who will manage the dispatchers at the new center, said she is working with the agencies to coordinate training schedules.
Training should take at most three months, according to Mark Peck, Office of Emergency Services director.
“We will do as much training as we can in the Sheriff’s Office, but a majority will be done after we get in” to the new center, she said, “My goal is to really have a plan and get as much done as we can before June.”
Each dispatcher will be assigned a communications training officer to help him or her through the phone, fire, EMS and law phases of the program, designed by Provo.
They also must learn new policies, since they will be working under the Office of Emergency Services at the new center.
Integrated training is the plan until mid-June, said Provo. A dispatcher will begin training in phases before the center goes live: for example, spending half a shift or a day off in training at the Flathead County Sheriff’s office or at the new center.
“The goal is to have a smooth transition by accumulating a large amount of training before opening the doors to the new building,” said Provo.
All dispatchers will have to learn the new computer and radio systems at the center.
Peck said that training won’t start for another month and a half because furniture is being moved into the center and phone lines and Internet connections are still getting sorted out.
Peck anticipated training at the new building should begin by May.
Dispatchers will keep their seniority and Peck said all the current dispatchers should keep their jobs.
“We’re still playing with those numbers, but we’re about down to everybody keeping their positions,” he said. He said union negotiations are still under way.
According to Peck, 29 dispatchers including a manager will be employed at the new center, including four lead dispatchers and four supervisors. The building will employ 38 people, including support staff and Office of Emergency Services personnel.
Emergency Services personnel are expected to move in by April.
Reporter Melissa Weaver may be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at mweaver@dailyinterlake.com