Storey Co.'s communication center gets upgraded

There was a time in Storey County, not too long ago, when dispatchers had to keep an eye on the prisoners in the Virginia City Jail as well as staff the phones and the radio.

Now, though the county communications department is still located in the old jail, it has a brand-new room, upgraded equipment, a new chain of command and no prisoners in sight.

"At one time, dispatchers were also the jailers," said Dave Ballard, director of the new Storey County Communications Center,

But the dispatchers can still call on the jailers if they need help.

"The jailers know how to dispatch and will jump in if calls get heavy," Ballard said.

The center is also no longer under the control of the sheriff's office, becoming a separate entity as of May. The center provides service to the fire department and sheriff's office as well as other county departments such as public works, when the need arises. They monitor calls from other jurisdictions and get help to those areas when a request for assistance is made.

The new department needed some new digs, so at a cost of about $50,000, county workers renovated a room in the jail, carpeting the floor and walls to cut down on noise, and installed state-of-the-art consoles and upgraded computer software.

"We took equipment we had and upgraded and enhanced it," Ballard said. "We've added monitors and new computers to handle the CAD (computer-aided dispatch) system."

The 20-by-18-foot dispatch room is bigger than the last one, which, at 12-by-12 feet, was slightly larger than the average jail cell.

"We soundproofed, changed the acoustics and made it larger," he said. "The old room was steel and brick. It was hard to hear in there. Having it set up and laid out and designed is beneficial for everyone."

The new, quieter center makes it easier for callers and dispatchers to hear each other, he said, essential in providing effective service.

The new consoles are designed for the comfort of dispatchers. They can be moved up or down, which saves the county and the employee a lot on back problems and increases productivity.

The room is kept dark, making it easier for dispatchers to see the five screens covering phone and radio systems, CAD and mapping, with another used to check for emergency alerts or do other tasks like send the daily activity report to local media.

Six dispatchers work for the county, supervised by Ballard, with two on during the busier hours from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and room for more, with a wall wired to install a third console when it is needed.

"The county has grown," he said. "To date we're over 7,000 incidents for the year. We're built to last five to 10 years."

Lynnette Board, who has been with the county a few weeks, previously worked for the Nevada Highway Patrol, and was already familiar with the equipment.

"Except there I didn't deal with suspicious characters or burglars," she said.

Board said the most important thing to her was getting as much information as possible from the callers.

"You still have to ask the questions," she said.

Sherry Torrero is a 10-year veteran of the county dispatch system, and remembers the loud room where she also had to watch the prisoners. She prefers the new site.

"I love it," she said. "There's a lot less distraction."

Despite moving into the 21st century with new equipment, the new department still takes care of a historic duty. They make sure Virginia City's noon whistle blows at noon.

The whistle, which began in World War II as an air raid siren, was once used to call volunteer firefighters to the station in the event of a fire. Now cell phones and pagers are used. But the whistle still blows at noon.

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111 ext. 351.