You may have heard one of their voices on the phone. You may have received medical treatment thanks to their work. You may have called out to them for help when you needed the police.

They are the staff of the county’s 9-1-1 communications center.

This week, along with other 9-1-1 communicators across the country, Lincoln County Communications will celebrate National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week (April 13-19).

The staff is made up of 11 dispatchers and four supervisors who answer calls to the county’s police departments, fire departments and ambulances, 24 hours a day, seven days every week.

Operating from a centralized facility that shares a Wiscasset location with the county courthouse and the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, their work area is a large, semicircular console that houses computer screens, phone receivers and the other technology needed to respond to emergency calls.  

Kathy Blagdon, Theresa Grenier and Sarah Sherman are several who man the 9-1-1 phones.

The communications center receives all 9-1-1 calls that originate within Lincoln County and the equipment shows the name and address of landline callers. Currently, incoming cell phone calls show the location of the nearest cell tower, so callers using a cell phone need to provide the 9-1-1 staff with their physical location or a nearby landmark.

When the phone rings in the center, two members of the staff pick up the call. One person will ask the caller for their address and for information about what has happened.

The second person listening to the call will then begin to contact the appropriate emergency personnel, which may be medical, fire or police, depending on the information provided by the caller. Information is relayed with incredible speed because lives may be at stake.

That type of stress leads to responder burnout in some locations, but not in Lincoln County, despite the annual change from a winter population of 35,000 residents to a summer population of 100,000. 

As an example, Blagdon, Grenier and Sherman together total 49 years of experience. Blagdon is a 31-year employee and went to New Orleans to assist with emergency telecommunications in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

In addition to many hours of training prior to starting the work, the 9-1-1 staff are also required to re-certify every two years. Calls are reviewed by staff on a regular basis so performance remains at its current high levels.

When asked what they would like Lincoln County residents to know about their work, communications center staff responded that the questions asked by them then they answer the phone are necessary and not a waste of time. They also advise anyone who is in an emergency to call 9-1-1 and not the telephone number for EMA, because doing so will waste valuable minutes of response time.