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Date: 1/19/2022
WESTFIELD — As the city renovates its dispatch center to accommodate the expansion to cover Southwick, staffing shortages may prompt the changeover to happen sooner than planned.
Westfield Public Safety Communications Administrator Nina Barszcz, who has been overseeing the regionalization effort, told the Public Safety Communications Commission last week that Southwick dispatchers have been leaving their jobs faster than planners had predicted. She said some dispatchers have opted to find new jobs now rather than wait until the beginning of full regionalization. The town is not hiring replacements.
“They aren’t going to try to hire, there is no sense,” said Barszcz. “They are already closing their doors in the next 12-18 months.”
To cover shifts at Southwick’s dispatch desk, two of Westfield’s dispatchers, and sometimes Barszcz herself, will fill in for Southwick as needed, on a per-diem basis.
Should Southwick’s staffing levels drop further, Barszcz said regionalization of the dispatch centers could have to begin much sooner than expected.
“We are trying to help with staffing knowing that if their staffing drops critically, we will somehow need to take their dispatch operations,” said Barszcz.
Depending on the actual staffing, she said that they could do a hybrid model in which Westfield’s dispatch covers both communities at night, and each municipality handles just its own operations during the day. If regionalization needs to take place quickly, Barszcz said that she has already asked their radio vendor for quotes on infrastructure that would allow Westfield’s dispatch center to access the radio communications of Southwick’s emergency responders.
Public Safety Communications Commissioner Peter Cowles said that Westfield should already have the technology in place to make the “hot swap” to regionalization if needed. Barszcz said that she thought so too, but that they have tested the process and found that they cannot yet do so.
She said that the interview and hiring process for new dispatchers would be taking place soon.