South Windsor Dispatchers Honored by Town Council

The Town Council on Monday took some time to recognize some of the unsung heroes in the public safety sphere: the telecommunicators who are better known as dispatchers.

Dispatchers Rachel Burnham and Krista Jeski, along with Deputy Chief of Police Richard Riggs, were on hand to hear Mayor Tom Delnicki read a proclamation declaring the week of April 14 through April 20 as National Telecommunicator’s Week in South Windsor.

Jeski, in thanking the Town Council, said that she and her colleagues in South Windsor view dispatching as a career, not just as a job.       

She said that, in addition to communicating with the public, her duties include dispatching the fire, police and ambulance services in town, as well as directing where roads have not been plowed, among other things.

“We’re one of the few agencies where if you call, a live person will answer every day,” Burnham said.

Riggs, for his part, also thanked the council and said that the dispatchers do good work every day.

In telling how challenging it is to be a dispatcher, Riggs said that years ago, officers had to fill in for dispatchers who called out.

Riggs said that whenever he had to cover for a dispatcher, he made sure to take a few aspirin as a preventive measure for the inevitable headache he would get from having to pay attention to so much at once.

“There is a lot of stress,” Riggs said. “Either it’s very quiet or you are doing 10 things at a time. I don’t know how they do it.”