Categories: News Archive

Caldwell County 911 Communications Center Celebrates National Public Safety Telecommunications Week

LENOIR, NC (April 7, 2017)…National Public-Safety Telecommunications Week, sponsored by the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO), is celebrated the second full week of April. This year, the week of April 9-15, is designated to honor the public safety Telecommunicators who work behind the scenes to answer thousands of calls for help every day. Caldwell County residents and visitors are especially blessed with some of the most professional, and best trained Telecommunicators to be found.

The Caldwell County 911 Communications Center Telecommunicators are trained to national level standards of emergency dispatch and train over 50 hours every year to maintain the standards they have reached. All training they receive assists them in taking calls, locating callers and dispatching the closest public safety responders. The Center currently employees 19 full time and 5 part time Telecommunicators who are responsible for answering over 3,500 911 calls and over 12,000 non-emergency calls per month and dispatching law enforcement, medical and fire calls for citizens in Caldwell County. They work 24/7, 365 days a year which include holidays, birthdays, bad weather days, every day. They are thankful for great fire, law enforcement and medical personnel to work with from behind the scenes. But they are not just the voices you hear, they are the voices who answer your 911 call no matter what time of day or night and are essentially, the first, “first responder”. They are proud to do their part in keeping Caldwell County a safer place to live, work and play.

Please join us in honoring our dedicated, professional men and women for their hard work as Telecommunicators.

Below is a list of our Telecommunicators and how long they have faithfully served in their profession:

FULL TIME
Carla Bates/Communications Director/EMD Since 1989
Becky Rector/Shift Supervisor/EMD Since 2002
Tonya McManus/Shift Supervisor/EMD Since 1996
Devin Ford/Shift Supervisor/EMD Since 2010
Lacie Wilson/Shift Supervisor/EMD Since 2014
Dawn Hardin/Telecommunicator II/EMD Since 1996
Vickie Woodie/Telecommunicator II/EMD Since 2000
Chad Bolick/Telecommunicator II/EMD Since 2005
Jason Pennell/Telecommunicator II/EMD Since 1999
Ryan Dula/Telecommunicator II/EMD Since 2013
Kendall Duncan/Telecommunicator II/EMD Since 2013
Preston Story Telecommuncator II/EMD Since 2014
Saralylnn Gaillard/Telecommunicator II/EMD Since 2014
Joseph Hicks/Telecommunicator II/EMD Since 2015
Buddy Dishman/Telecommunicator I/EMD Since 2015
Johnathan Norris/Telecommunicator I/EMD Since 2015
Patrick Whittington/Telecommunicator I/EMD Since 2016
Erica Yount/Telecommunicator Trainee Since 2017
Sarah Loria/Telecommunicator Trainee Since 2017