National Telecommunicators Week is celebrated in April and a local administrator is celebrating his staff and promoting the work of those in the field.

Tony Harris is the DeWitt County 9-1-1 Coordinator and indicates telecommunicators are unseen voices that are in contact with everyone involved in an emergency.

When an officer or first responder heads to a scene that requires emergency personnel, oftentimes they may not know what they are walking into and it is pivotal that dispatchers make sure those individuals have all the necessary information for their protection.

Like many professions, telecommunicators are in high demand right now. Harris indicates while many people coming out of high school might focus on becoming an EMT or a police officer, he hopes to see young people consider being a dispatcher.

According to Harris, the DeWitt County 9-1-1 office has openings and has battled trying to find workers interested in the job. Being a telecommunicator is a difficult but rewarding job and it takes a special type of person to be successful at it.

Harris indicates they have been working to rally community support to provide gifts for their dispatchers and the work they do. When they are short-staffed, that means everyone has to pick up the slack and there have been a lot of long hours for those individuals lately.