Working 12-Hour Shift, Dispatchers Near Burn-Out

While tourists in Steamboat Springs (Colo.) are having a good time in the ski resort town, dispatchers are working mandatory 12-hour shifts to cover four empty positions among a total of 15 dispatchers. Center director Sharon Clever met with the Routt County commissioners last week to explain the critical staffing situation, noting that two dispatchers are out on family medical leave, and two positions are empty after the trainees dropped out just one month before finishing the 6-month training process. In one case, Clever told the commissioners, she had to ask a sick dispatcher to work and called in another who was on vacation. The center is also working without an assistant director position that was eliminated in a 2008 budget cut-back. A second manager quit. Read more here.