Tucker County 911 Telecommunicators receive a trophy for their participation in the 2015 National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week in April. Accepting the trophy on behalf of the center are Joe Meloy, Darla Stemple, Judy Long and Beverly Cantrell.
By Beth Christian Broschart
The Parsons Advocate
PARSONS – In April, telecommunicators from the Tucker County 911 Center transformed their office into a pirate ship, complete with pirates, eye patches, swords, doubloons and even a parrot. The activities were part of National Public Safety Telecommunicators Week, and recently, they were tapped as number one in the state for the theme day for that week, receiving a trophy to display through the year.
Tucker County Office of Homeland Security & Emergency Management/911 Director Darla Stemple said she was proud of everyone.
“This is the first year that they actually participated, and they went all out to make their pirate costumes and ship,” Stemple said. “They came together and it was fun for them. Next year, they will participate all week doing a different dress up each day.”
Stemple said she had all of the confidence in the world in the Tucker 911 Telecommunicator Team. “I knew they could pull this off. They have quite an imagination and next year they will have a reputation to uphold.”
The trophy comes to Tucker County via Monongalia County, who were the 2014 winners. Wood County 911 Telecommunicators took the trophy in 2012 and 2013.
“It was nice to see the comradory,” Stemple said. “They got together and decided what they were going to do. It was just that one week where they can be different.”
The Telecommunicators agreed it was fun and they had a good time relaxing and being different.
“The recognition and getting that out there about who we are and what we do really helps,” said Judy Long.
Tucker County 911 Telecommunicators celebrated a week that formally recognizes their hard work and dedication. The Association of Public Safety Communications Officials set aside April 12 to 18 to celebrate these heroes and the hard work they perform.
Sanford “Sandy” Green, Region III West Virginia Division of Homeland Security & Emergency Management Area Liaison, said for a small county, Tucker County has as professional of a 911 Center as any place that he has dealt with anywhere in the country.
“I drove for almost a million miles in 20 years in the sales business and I have had to call 911 a lot,” Green said. “Our people always measured up to anybody I spoke with anywhere else in the country.”
Green said the Tucker County 911 telecommunicators are well led, well instructed, well-disciplined and they do their jobs well.
“The Tucker County 911 telecommunicators winning this contest does not surprise me at all,” Green said.
