Kim DeCuzzi explains how a state-of-the-art computer system allows dispatchers to keep track of all fire engines and ambulances from the four cities participating in the Westshore Central Dispatch Center. (Photo by Larry Bennet)

Regional dispatch center officially opens
By Kevin Kelley
Westshore
Published April 5, 2006

At a ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Westshore Central Dispatch Center March 29, local leaders hailed the opening of the facility as an example of how communities can work together to offer improved services in a more efficient manner.

“The whole purpose of having this center here is to provide better services to our constituents,” said Westlake Mayor Dennis Clough.

The dispatch center, located on the campus of St. John West Shore Hospital in Westlake, assigns ambulances and fire engines to emergency calls in Westlake, Bay Village, Rocky River and Fairview Park.

Clough called the opening of the center a historical moment for the Westshore region.

Officials from four cities cut a ceremonial ribbon marking the opening of the Westshore Central Dispatch Center on March 29. Left to right: Assistant Supervisor Frank Anselmo, Supervisor Nick Pishnery, Fairview Park Fire Chief David Simon, Rocky River Mayor Bill Knoble, Bay Village Mayor Deborah Sutherland, Fairview Park Mayor Eileen Patton, Westlake Mayor Dennis Clough, Westlake Fire Chief Rick Pietrick and Bay Village Fire Chief Gregory Jackson. (Photo by Larry Bennet)

Joining Clough at the ribbon cutting were Mayors Deborah Sutherland of Bay Village, William Knoble of Rocky River and Eileen Patton of Fairview Park. Several council members from all four cities also attended and toured the facility.

Since the center became operational March 13, 9-1-1 calls first go to the police station in the caller’s city. If the call is a medical or fire emergency, it is immediately transferred to the dispatch center.

The goal was to make the transition to the new dispatch center as seamless as possible for residents, explained Nick Pishnery, the center’s supervisor. Dispatchers answer the phones saying simply “fire department” so as to not confuse callers, he said.

The state-of-the-art dispatching software automatically picks which fire or paramedic unit to send to the emergency call. Three computer monitors allow each dispatcher to keep track of all fire and paramedic units of all four cities. Each city’s vehicle list is color-coded according to the colors of that city’s high school athletic teams.

The seven full-time and seven part-time dispatchers went through three months of training on the dispatch system as well as CPR. All are certified as emergency medical dispatchers, meaning they can offer callers life-saving instructions until firefighters or paramedics arrive on the scene.

Westlake Fire Chief Richard Pietrick said city leaders first approached St. John West Shore Hospital officials about hosting a regional dispatch center four years ago when the hospital revamped its emergency room.

A grant of $566,000 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency paid for the state-of-the-art technology at the heart of the center.

After the Westlake Fire Department’s first federal grant application was rejected in 2003, it was rewritten and approved in 2004, Pietrick noted.

“If that did not occur, we probably would not be standing here today,” Pietrick said.

Pishnery said an immediate benefit of the center is that it allows each participating city to put a firefighter who was previously handling phone calls back in service.

“Because of us, each city has one more firefighter they can put on the street,” Pishnery said. “Up to two weeks ago, that firefighter remained in the station and he couldn’t do what he was being paid to do and what he was trained to do — put out fires and save lives.”

Another benefit is the new dispatching technology, paid for by the federal government, which most cities could not have afforded on their own, Pishnery added.

“A lot of the equipment that the fire stations had was pretty antiquated and out-of-date and breaking down regularly,” he said. “We’ve got the latest, newest equipment.”

Pishnery, who like all the dispatchers is an employee of the city of Westlake, previously worked at a joint dispatch center serving Cleveland Heights, Shaker Heights and University Heights. But the Westshore center is better in two ways, he said.

First, the staffing levels are higher and satisfy Pishnery’s standards.

Secondly, the equipment is new and state-of-the-art, he said.

Two dispatchers will always be on duty, Pishnery said. A third will be working from noon to 8 p.m. each day. In addition, Pishnery or the assistant supervisor, Frank Anselmo, will be on duty between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m.

Although his city is not currently part of the joint venture, North Olmsted Mayor Thomas O’Grady attended the ribbon cutting ceremony. O’Grady has been lobbying his city council to sign up with the center but has thus far been unsuccessful.