Warning that the county is facing a possible “public safety disaster,” particularly as seasonal threats of thunderstorms approach, James Pfleegor, a retired 911 dispatcher, urged the Lycoming County commissioners and Public Safety Director Forest Rothchild to find a short-term solution.

Referring to the plan to resolve the staffing shortage at the 911 Call Center, which had been presented to the board by Rothchild, Pfleegor said that it might meet the needs in the long run, but not the immediate concerns.

“It looks like he does have a good long term program, but your problem is your short term. Right now, you don’t have enough people,” Pfleegor said.

Rothchild had mentioned in his presentation that some agencies in other states have turned to using traveling dispatchers to deal with staffing shortages, however he pointed out that it is not easy to do that in Pennsylvania because of state certifications.

“I just think right now, in the short term, you have a public safety disaster and I think the traveling dispatcher needs to be really investigated until the long-term program can work,” Pfleegor said.

“You’re looking at 2027 to have somebody fully-staffed,” he said.

Another retired 911 dispatcher, Neal Winder, who had been with the county for 40 years backed up what Pfleegor had said.

“It’s time to get off the pot and get it done with the thunderstorm season coming back,” Winder said.

“Years ago, we were issued pagers and if that pager went off because of severe thunderstorm warning, it was nothing to have eight or nine people that were off duty show up to answer phones and we have specific areas to go to answer phones in everybody’s office and we got the job done,” Winder said.

Beth Hutchins, who left her position at the Call Center this year, encouraged the county’s Human Resources department to be enlisted in the search for possible applicants, however she noted that she wasn’t sure they really understood what the telecommunicators really did.

“There’s so much multi-tasking. You have to understand technology and not just one system. There’s ten systems. You’re in front of six screens at all times. You have to have that ability to go back and forth – it’s a very difficult position,” Hutchins said.

The former employees all suggested that the commissioners visit the Call Center in order to get a clearer picture of what is involved in the process.