NRCC seeks more dispatchers

FORUM FILE PHOTO
The Northwest Regional Communications Center is looking for more dispatchers.

MARYVILLE, Mo. — The Northwest Regional Communications Center is looking for more dispatchers.

Understaffing has been a perpetual issue for the agency since it was formed in 2020 to handle dispatch services across the county. Worth County also contracts with the NRCC for dispatching in that county as well.

Last year, the Nodaway County Emergency Services Board, which oversees the NRCC, authorized expanding the staff, adding a new full-time position to help spread the load out further and reduce the amount of time the director, Jessica Rickabaugh, spends on the console herself.

During the regular Emergency Services Board meeting on Friday, Rickabaugh said that isn’t working out so far. The new position remains unfilled, along with another full-time slot and a part-time position, she said. Overnight shifts remain the hardest to staff.

And the significant investment in training new hires makes it difficult to quickly react to turnover. According to Rickabaugh, new dispatchers ideally train 30-40 hours per week for a minimum of 7-10 weeks before they’re fully trained, certified and prepared to staff a console on their own.

A major factor in the staff shortage, she said, is a reduction in the number of interested college students.

“When I started, our whole part-time staff and half our full-time staff (were) college students,” Rickabaugh told the board. “And I can hardly get a college student to apply anymore.”

Even when college students do apply, she said, they’re frequently juniors or seniors, which means that after the long training period, she already has to start thinking about who is going to replace them.

Going forward, Rickabaugh said she’s working with Northwest Missouri State University to try to build a stronger connection with the Emergency and Disaster Management program with a focus on exposing freshmen and sophomores to the NRCC.

Other NCESB notes

• Rickabaugh said that about 200 people attended the second annual First Responders Banquet on April 4, which is up from around 150 last year. She said the banquet has been very helpful in building a sense of teamwork across the 28 agencies in Nodaway and Worth counties that utilize the NRCC for dispatch services.
• The next Emergency Services Board meeting is set for 1 p.m. on July 17.