Livingston County’s Central Dispatch will be receiving an additional salaried employee this year.

The Livingston County Public Safety and Infrastructure and Development Committee, which is a subcommittee of the County Commissioners, approved the addition of a 911 Operations Manager position during Tuesday night’s meeting. The job, which was removed from the organizational structure in May of 2017, is coming back after it was determined the need for the position had returned. The duties had been redistributed to the Deputy Director and Operations Supervisor, but the extra duties were causing a significant strain on both the administration of the 911 department and the operations center. The new hire, which will be a salaried position, will not cost the county any additional funds, as there is currently room in the budget for the job. Central Dispatch Director Chad Chewning told WHMI that with demand continuing to increase, the workload was becoming far too much for just two people. “Our volume of inbound calls and dispatches has gone up over 15,000 a year which is causing more workload for our center. So, in doing that, we need more administrative people besides just two to try to manage the large volume we’re taking in and giving out to the public safety responders.”

The committee, which is made up of commissioners Kate Lawrence, Doug Helzerman, Carol Griffith and Dennis Dolan, approved the resolution unanimously.

Helzerman told WHMI that is was clear how important this position is to Central Dispatch. “They really have a heavy workload and the workload is increasing. They did a good job in trying to economize and get along without it, but they found it really was a very important position.”

Both Chewning and Deputy Director Joni Harvey were in attendance and left pleased with the committee’s decision. (AV)