When Webster County residents call the 911 dispatch center to report an emergency, there will be two dispatchers ready to field those calls at any given time.

“We are going to have two telecommunicators on every shift, 24/7,” said Dan Posluszny, project manager for IXP, a New Jersey-based public safety management services company which oversees Webster County’s communications center.

And according to Fort Dodge Assistant Police Chief Cory Husske, having two dispatchers on one shift wasn’t always the case before IXP took over dispatch operations.

“Having two people on the clock is more than what we had before,” Husske said. “We want two per shift.”

Thanks to IXP, there has been an increase in staffing.

The Webster County Telecommunications Board approved a contract with IXP in June to take over management of the dispatch center. The contract is set for five years, but the Telecom board can opt out if it is not satisfied with the service. The first-year cost for the firm’s services is $560,000.

The board was scheduled have its regular meeting Thursday, but not enough members were present for a quorum. Instead, a brief discussion was held to discuss the progress of IXP.

No action was taken by board members.

The communications center has nine full-time employees and five part-time employees, according to Posluszny.

He said all but one of those employees is trained and certified. The other dispatcher, a part-time employee, is anticipated to be certified today, Posluszny said.

Posluszny said the training is documented and sent to the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy for approval.

“We are in a large transition here, trying to train to what we want,” Posluszny said. “Right now we have focused on hiring and getting people certified.”

Posluszny said he believes one-on-one training is most effective.

“I think you learn the most that way,” he said. “The quality will go up. We will hire more than we actually staff for in case of turnover, which inevitably happens.”

Husske said jobs have been created as a result of the transition to IXP.

All of the dispatchers on staff live in the Fort Dodge area.

“We have the five part-timers who were all employees from here before,” Posluszny said. “And we have a mix (of new ones). We brought some people back that had been gone for a while. We had five full-timers that came over during the transition and four part-timers that came over from the transition”

He added, “Most of the people have been from Fort Dodge. We had someone from Webster City that came over. That’s how we market it, too. We want to do it from town. We don’t want to bring people in from outside. It’s not economically feasible for us to do that.”

Posluszny said a test for new employees will be held in mid-September.

Uniforms for dispatchers will be ordered in the coming weeks, he said.

In October, IXP will begin a quality assurance plan.

“That’s where we listen to 15 to 20 calls a month,” Posluszny said. “And when someone does a nice job we give them a spot bonus.”