How it could be done.

Posted: Tuesday, November 15, 2016 12:00 pm

By Ethan DeWitt Sentinel Staff

The room was small, windowless, cluttered. For 13 years, two dispatchers sat inside, handling and diverting 911 police calls around Cheshire County.

It was cramped and not well ventilated. The heat from the equipment sometimes made it stifling.

But this fall, all that changed as dispatchers moved into a $650,000 newly furnished space in the old Cheshire County Courthouse, complete with windows, wide monitors and spacious desks. The center, which serves the Cheshire County Sheriff’s Department, as well as police departments around the region, opened Sept. 20.

The project was a three-year endeavor that brought in extensive funding from federal and state agencies. At the helm was Sheriff Eliezer “Eli” Rivera, who first was elected to the position in 2013 and has made the renovation a focus of his time since.

Rivera, a Democrat who was re-elected to his position Nov. 8 after beating Republican Earl D. Nelson, said he knew as soon as he came on board that the facility should be moved.

For one, it was removed from the rest of the office, which had been moved upstairs after the county courthouse relocated to a new facility next door. Separated from their colleagues, the dispatchers felt left out, Rivera said.

It was also very small.

“From day one, when I got here, I realized that they were in a pretty tight room for what they did,” he said.

The space has long served a vital service. In 2003, the Cheshire County Sheriff’s Office took over handling police dispatching services from Southwestern N.H. Fire Mutual Aid, according to Arlene W. Crowell, director of communications at the sheriff’s office. Since then, she said, the office handles more than 53,000 phone calls and 1 million radio transfers a year.

All 911 calls in New Hampshire go directly to a dispatch center in Concord, where they are then sorted by type of emergency, Rivera said. Police-related calls from Cheshire County towns outside of Keene are transferred to the sheriff’s office, where dispatchers relay them to the local police departments throughout the county. All Keene-related calls go through the Keene Police Department on Marlboro Street.

At least two dispatchers are in the office at every hour of the day, though more staff is added to handle weekend calls, Rivera said.

In 2014, with a goal to expand, Rivera lobbied for a new space for the dispatch center in the former grand jury room, a floor above. The project was estimated to cost $650,000, and Rivera and Cheshire County Administrator Christopher Coates worked to apply for funding grants from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies. Homeland Security kicked in $306,000 for purchasing new communications equipment, while $100,000 from New Hampshire’s Department of Emergency Management went toward furniture, moving equipment and computers, according to Rivera. New tax revenues brought in $75,000, with the rest of the money sourced from leftover funds in previous capital projects, Crowell said.

The results have been transformative. Once situated in a dark cubby, the new dispatch center has a modern flair. Sunlight pours over the monitor banks as dispatchers sit before broad, curved desks with ample leg room. Television screens showing everything from security footage to “Who Wants to be a Millionaire” hang on the wall above.

Steve Buckley, who started with the sheriff’s office in 2000 and has worked full time as a police communications specialist since 2007, said the new setup was more comfortable and more efficient.

“It’s better organized, and there’s more information available,” he said, gesturing to the six-screen monitor system in front of each technician. The office has four.

Rivera said the enthusiasm for the new facilities was mirrored across the board.

“It’s like night and day for them,” he said, referring to change for the dispatchers.

Rivera added the new facilities were full of hidden benefits.

“The best part is the windows: Now we can look outside when people call to ask if it’s raining,” he joked.

Ethan DeWitt can be reached at 352-1234, extension 1439, or edewitt@keenesentinel.com. Follow him on Twitter at @EDeWittKS

posted by Jeff Bennett