Comm center upgrades will be welcomed
Tuesday, October 3, 2000
Steamboat Springs — A remodeling project planned for the county's communications center, where dispatchers are short staffed and missing a director, is expected to improve morale.
"We've been waiting for a remodel for two years now," said supervisor Sharon Clever. "We have no windows, which makes it even worse."
Clever has hired three new dispatchers in the last year, but still needs to hire two more.
On top of that, the communications center is without a director. The county has lost four directors in the past five years.
"It doesn't help morale when you can't keep a director on board," Clever said.
But Clever and two other supervisors are keeping things together, while everyone takes on more work.
Clever is the center's veteran at 15 years. Two other employees have been there 10 and five years. The other seven dispatchers are relatively new.
Clever admits a job that requires employees to work some weekends and holidays isn't perfect, but the job does offer three days off. She added that being a dispatcher is challenging, but lends itself to fun and camaraderie.
"You spend a lot of time with each other so you become very close-knit," Clever said.
New dispatchers start out at about $2,000 a month with benefits.
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