As we wrap up National Telecommunicator’s Week, we look at one of the longest standing dispatchers in Greene County.
15-year veteran Lesa Seil started working the overnight shift as a dispatcher for a couple of years and since then has been working the daytime shift from 8am to 4pm. She says the nighttime shift was quite busy with a lot of phone calls. When she started working the daytime shift, Seil says it was an eye-opening experience. She points out that one skill that she’s always had, but has greatly improved on over the years as a dispatcher is multi-tasking. Between all of the emergency calls, to administrative calls, to paging out different agencies to respond, Seil says it can be a lot, but it’s something that she continues to want to do.
“I love this line of work. (I) absolutely love it. I can’t image really doing anything else. I love helping people (and) I still love coming to my job everyday. And I guess the day that I don’t want to get out of bed and come to work is the day I will retire I guess, but I don’t see that in the foreseeable future. You know when I answer a 911 call, and I know that I have helped somebody, it is very rewarding.”
If there’s one thing Seil requests from the public is knowing when to call 911.
“We stress call 911 for emergencies so that I know that you have an emergency. Don’t call our business line because when it comes to prioritizing my calls, my business lines are going to come last.”
She adds that she will always answer the business line, but in cases of emergencies, those calls will be answered first.
The Greene County Sheriff’s office has four fulltime and six parttime dispatchers.