Porter County is having trouble keeping 911 dispatchers. E911 Director Debby Gunn told the county commissioners Tuesday that 17 employees have left over the last year and a half.
"We're finding that the 911 center actually is a very good training facility for other dispatch centers in the private sector, such as the railroad, NIPSCO . . . the mill. In the past six months, that's where our employees have left for," Gunn explained.
Commissioner Jim Biggs said that trend can't continue and the county has to do something to encourage people to stay. "That's a bleed out. That's not bleeding. It's a bleed out. I don't know . . . Something's going to have to be done here, quickly," Biggs said.
Gunn said one of the biggest needs is more money for trainers, since new dispatchers can't be brought in without them. In the meantime, the commissioners agreed to transfer $50,000 to cover the increasing cost of employee overtime.
