The Maplewood Citizens Academy toured the East Central Dispatch Center, in Richmond Heights, Wednesday evening as part of its six-week course covering all aspects of city government.
40 South News editor, Doug Miner, is taking part in the academy, and had the tour of ECDC. Shift supervisor, Patty Keneally, spoke to the group of about 10 Maplewood residents.
Five dispatchers sit in stations around the darkened room. Keneally said they work 12 1/2 hour shifts. Each dispatcher has several monitors. One controls radio contact; others show what police and fire vehicles are in service. They can also pull up detailed maps. Large monitors on a wall show suspects in the cells.
Keneally said four or five dispatchers work each shift, and when Brentwood and Rock Hill join in June (according to Maplewood Chief of Police Steve Kruse) six dispatchers will work at a time.
She said a former Brentwood dispatcher will be on each shift when the switch is made to help the other dispatchers acclimate to dispatching Brentwood.
A source used in the past regarding ECDC said the Brentwood dispatchers “are hanging in there as long as they can,” and “as of last week they’d not been offered a severance package or anything so they are continuing to work and make that good Brentwood money while they can.” Brentwood pays better than ECDC, according to the source.
Also, other departments are calling Brentwood dispatch to let them know if they are hiring.
Mary/Ron,
The Brentwood dispatchers were offered positions at ECDC. Some decided to apply, others decided to move on. Now before you think that I am speaking out of turn, or that I don’t know what I am talking about, let me tell you who I am. I am a shift supervisor with ECDC, I started out as a Richmond Heights dispatcher and continued on when ECDC was formed. Much like the Brentwood dispatchers, we have dispatchers that have been dispatching for over thirty years and we also have new people. Much like the Brentwood dispatchers,, all of us care about the people we take care of. Yes we are a larger center, yes we have a higher call volume than Brentwood, but that doesn’t mean we are bad at our jobs.
As far as training goes, it will be a two way street. We will be learning as much as we can from them and they will be learning as much as they can from us. We currently dispatch for about 16.5 square miles out of the 524 sq miles that makes up St Louis County. While adding the approximate 1300 acres that makes up Brentwood may seem daunting to you; I have confidence that ECDC’s current dispatchers, as well as the Brentwood dispatchers will adapt quickly and efficiently, as we did in 2004 when ECDC began, and again in 2005 when Olivette joined us.
I am sorry you have decided to judge our center and give it a thumbs down before getting to know us. Just remember one thing please. The dispatchers at ECDC and Brentwood were not the ones that made this decision. The dispatchers at ECDC and Brentwood have to live with these decisions and will continue to serve all of you to the best of our ability. Please stop the negativity , we are all people and we all have feelings. We are all doing our best to serve you, as well as everyone else in our communities.
Thank you Kurt – I really appreciate your heartfelt expression. Your comments makes clear the ECDC dispatchers do take their responsibilities very seriously and are committed to the communities they serve.
The title of this article is misleading. Why not call it Highly Compensated Brentwood Dispatchers still on the job or better yet how about Maplewood Citizen Academy Tours ECDC.
damn……I meant marybridgetbolt. Forget you saw that.
Losing our own professional dispatchers was a hard hit. I can imagine how they must feel training their own replacements. I continue to believe this outsourcing to a glut center was an error, and PRAY that each displaced EMS dispatcher gets a new job. Entities hiring a seasoned Brentwood dispatcher are indeed lucky. As I think of it, why were not the Brentwood dispatchers transferred to fill in the new slots at ECDC? Who was asleep in this contract negation? [TO ALL YOU DISPATCHERS–I DO CARE VERY MUCH ABOUT YOUR SITUATION.] Best to you. Ron.
Well if you’d done more research you’d have found that Brentwood dispatcher ARE filling the new slots at ECDC. And they aren’t training their own replacements. I’m not sure what a “glut center” is but you seem to have a lot of prejudices and not a lot of actual facts to back them up.
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