Flathead County's 911 dispatch center struggled to hire and retain employees during the first quarter of 2021 as call volumes continued to surge, but the center's director said the number of vacant positions is shrinking and the turnover has not disrupted emergency services.

Liz Brooks, director of the Flathead Emergency Communications Center, said the center has not been immune from the pandemic-related labor and housing shortages affecting businesses throughout the valley — and that's on top of the usual difficulties of recruiting for such high-stress jobs.

"Just like a lot of other organizations and businesses coming out of 2020, we are in a challenging spot with getting applicants in, and so we kind of ended up a little bit behind coming into 2021," Brooks said. "But we've brought on some great people since then, and our staff is doing a fantastic job of maintaining operations, and things are looking up."

The 911 center became a Flathead County department late last year after voters moved to increase its funding through a special countywide taxing district. It was previously run jointly by the county and the incorporated cities of Whitefish, Kalispell and Columbia Falls.

The center is budgeted for the equivalent of 26.5 full-time positions, and wages for dispatchers start at $18.54 an hour, plus benefits. During a meeting with the county commissioners last week, Brooks said the center has lost four trained dispatchers this year, two of whom transferred to other departments shortly after the center became a part of the county government.

"We have been experiencing some hiring and retention challenges, and there's a lot of factors involved," she told the commissioners. "The increasing workload and call volume has added to stress, and made it difficult to train, and made the position a little bit less desirable for some folks. Our 2020 hiring pools went down significantly, as far as viable candidates. And, unfortunately, that kind of snowballed into how we got where we are now."

IN A phone call Monday, Brooks said she was sending job offers to several promising applicants, which would whittle the number of vacant positions down to two.

She said dispatchers have had to work overtime to maintain minimum staffing levels — five dispatchers on duty during the day, and four at night — but recently there has been no dramatic increase in overtime costs. She said she's working with staff to improve the system for assigning overtime.

Brooks said the time it takes to train dispatchers has contributed to retention challenges. And the dearth of affordable housing in the valley has posed yet another problem. She said the center recently hired a man for a highly specialized radio technician job, but he struggled to find an affordable home and quit shortly afterward.

"Our starting wage is $18.54 an hour," Brooks said, adding dispatchers get paid a higher rate for night shifts as well as wage increases for longevity after the first year. "I actually feel positive about where we're at right now."

In addition to an aggressive hiring and outreach effort, Brooks told the commissioners she is working with a Kalispell police officer to potentially create a dispatcher training course at Flathead Valley Community College.

According to data she presented, the total number of calls to the center jumped from about 136,000 in 2016 to 167,000 in 2020, but the number of 911 calls hovered steadily between about 32,000 and 34,000.

While some of the non-911 calls are actually emergencies, some callers are just trying to reach a detective or a police department's records department. Brooks said she would work with the center's operations board on better ways to improve the phone trees and screen out nonemergency calls.

FLATHEAD COUNTY Sheriff Brian Heino said he's not aware of any service disruptions resulting from the 911 center's staffing situation, but it does cause him some concern.

"The sheriff's office has seen an increase in call volume. The 911 center is seeing an increase in call volume," Heino said. "Yet we are running that same staffing level overall."

Dispatchers, he noted, work on rotating schedules, often fielding panicked calls and helping law enforcement officers navigate difficult and dangerous situations.

"It's not a Monday-through-Friday, 8-to-5 job," he said. "They are essential to us. They're hardworking individuals that are our lifeline back to the world."

Reporter Chad Sokol can be reached at 758-4439 or csokol@dailyinterlake.com