On the line: Harvey County Communications observing 40th anniversary

Dispatcher Shannon Robbins works in the communications center for the county. The Harvey County Communications Center is celebrating its 40th anniversary this week. There are no formal plans for the celebration.

By Wendy Nugent

It’s not every day a grandpa gets to be the first to meet his grandchild, but that happened on Nov. 8, 2018, when dispatcher and former Harvey County Communications Center Director Courtney Becker guided a rural Whitewater man to deliver his granddaughter.

In addition, on Oct. 28, 1995, Dispatcher Cathy Rankin assisted a Hesston couple deliver their third child.

“These calls are unusual in the fact that, in most cases, the quick response of dispatchers and responders means EMS gets there long before the actual delivery occurs,” Director of Harvey County Communications Don Gruver said. “But sometimes fate takes a strange turn.”

Those are only the two times dispatchers assisted with births, although they direct CPR over the phone a lot, Gruver said.

Harvey County Communications is celebrating its birthday this week. Tuesday marked the inception of Harvey County Communications, Gruver said. The past 40 years have been intense, at times. One of the noteworthy events included the Feb. 16, 2016, Hesston Excel Industries shooting, where four people died and 14 others were injured.

“Communications handled over 60 calls in 20 minutes related to the shootings,” Gruver said. “A recently developed mass casualty plan is put in place, resulting in the quick response of 16 ambulances and two helicopters to transport the injured to area hospitals in less than an hour.”

None of the transported victims died, and the FBI reported this incident was one of the smoothest active shooter responses in which they had been involved, Gruver said.

Another was the March 13, 1990, F5 tornado that directly hit Hesston.

There also was April 9, 2005, when Harvey County Deputy Kurt Ford was killed in the line of duty during a hostage standoff. Gruver and Becker just had been added to the Harvey County Emergency Response Team as field tactical dispatchers and were at the command post on scene.

Harvey County Communications kicked off Jan. 4, 1982.

“Prior to this merger, dispatch services were handled separately by the Newton Police Department, who dispatched Newton Fire as well, and the Harvey County Sheriff’s Office, who also dispatched rural fire and ambulance departments, as well as providing jailer duties,” Gruver said. “Communications with those various entities had been a challenge for many years.”

Law enforcement used a statewide 39.58 low band channel in the 1960s and ’70s that picked up other states and cities but not always their own because of the skip characteristics.

Some of the fire departments had CB radios, and others had no communications, Gruver said, with communications between departments non-existent. Departments had separate communications.

Shannon Robbins is one of several dispatchers employed by the county.

“Everybody had seven-digit numbers to call,” Gruver said. “They started talking about how to improve the dispatching capabilities, being able to consolidate them.”

This was before 911.

“A lot of the small cities would just take care of their own,” Gruver said.

Some towns had a fire number that called all the firefighters or the call went to City Hall, and they’d push a button to set off a fire siren on top of a building.

Gruver said that in Pratt, it was common knowledge when the alarm sounded, people should get out of the way. Firefighters raced to the fire station to drive the truck to the scene. This was when Gruver was in Pratt.

In Newton, there were a lot of seven-digit numbers for people to call.

The 911 number first came out in Alabama in 1968 but didn’t reach Harvey County until 1983. With the town of Sedgwick, calls went into Sedgwick County, and in 1993, that’s when selective routing went into play, Gruver said. Zip codes and city limits didn’t matter any more.

In 1987, the sheriff said he didn’t want to have communications duties anymore, so that’s when Ron Hoffman became the first communications director. Before that, the county administrator and sheriff oversaw that.

Some of the key players in creating the center at the time were Newton Ambulance Chief Jim Werries, Harvey County Administrator Gene Kristenson, Sheriff Galen Morford and the mayor. Leroy Dyck was the technical expert.

More recently, Gruver said the department’s call load dropped more than 11.5 percent in 2020 with the pandemic and that they were on track to be up 25 percent for 2021.

“We are the 10th busiest 911 center in the state,” Gruver said, adding they’re right up there with medium-sized cities. “We’re busier than Salina and Hutchinson. We get more calls than they do. We’re busier than centers with 20 or more people.”

Employment

“We do have a lot of long-term experience people,” Gruver said. “The people that work here generally stay here for their entire career.”

Gruver himself has worked for Harvey County for 23 years, with nine as communications assistant director and the last seven as communications director.

One dispatcher has been there for 33 years, and Catherine Rankin was a local dispatcher for 41 years, starting in 1976.

Gruver said that, as of late December, they were down six people and were looking to hire for one position.

“It takes four to five months to get people trained to be on their own,” Gruver said.

More history

The consolidated Harvey County Communications Center started operations in the courthouse basement on Jan. 4, 1982. Six dispatchers were employed, and the center had two dispatch consoles. After the Hesston tornado, a third was added.

The communications department moved to the new Law Enforcement Center on Jan. 29, 1997. There were 12 dispatchers and four consoles. Now the center has five consoles with another in a back room for overflow, quality assurance reviews and training. There also are two more 911 phones in the director and assistant director’s offices. Rounding out staffing are 12 full-time and two part-time dispatchers.

“This transition worked largely in part to the spirit that runs throughout Harvey County—cities and the county, fire, EMS, emergency management and law agencies all working together to provide the best service possible,” Gruver said.

0 replies on “On the line: Harvey County Communications observing 40th anniversary”