BRANCH COUNTY — The Branch County 911 Central Dispatch Board has approved and sent to the County Commission a proposed new Service Agreement to operate the consolidated emergency communications for all of the counties.
The 911 board has chaffed at the county’s control over salaries for dispatchers which it believes has to lead to the high turnover of newly trained dispatchers and long term employees who left for other positions.
The county’s two-tier hiring program has starting dispatcher salaries at $14.23 an hour compared to $17.22 an hour in Steuben County, Ind. the next lowest in the region. In July the turn over got so great there were five vacancies among the 11 positions which forced overtime and employee burnout.
