T-L Photos/GAGE VOTA Belmont County Commissioners Vince Gianangeli, J.P. Dutton, and Jerry Echemann and Belmont County 9-1-1 Director Bryan Minder pose with the declaration making this week National Public Safety Telecommunications week. From left to right: Belmont County Commissioners Vince Gianangeli, Belmont County 9-1-1 Director Bryan Minder, and Belmont County Commissioners J.P. Dutton and Jerry Echemann.

ST. CLAIRSVILLE — The Belmont County Board of Commissioners declared this week to be National Public Safety Telecommunications week.

According to the National Public Safety Telecommunications website, the week was originally started in 1981 by Patricia Anderson of the Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office in California. In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed Presidential Proclamation 6667, declaring the second week of April as NPSTW.

Belmont County 911 Director Bryan Minder said that his office has been celebrating the week for years by providing food for his staff and doing giveaways throughout the week to show his appreciation for them.

Minder said that he started his 911 career as a dispatcher so he understands the mental toll the job can take on individuals.

“The job they do is a thankless job,” Minder said. “Quite often, they’re the people you don’t see in the news stories. You know fires and wrecks and this and that, police arrests and things. You see those first responders out there, but you don’t see the first first responders, which are the 911 dispatchers who take the initial call, and they’re the ones who are keeping the safety of everybody in their mind, whether it be the general public or the people responding to the call.” “The job they do is not a physically stressful job, but it’s definitely a mentally stressful job,” he continued. “The things they do here on a daily basis, they take with them. So it’s an awful, thankless job, but what they do is definitely needed and appreciated, and we take the time this week just to show them that we appreciate them and thank them for the job that they do.”

He added that Belmont County 911 isn’t the only 911 dispatch center in the county. Martins Ferry and Barnesville both have their own dispatch employees and wants to show them the gratitude and respect they deserve.

Belmont County Commissioner J.P. Dutton asked Minder how the county has changed since he started his career in terms of the amount of municipalities within the county having its own dispatch centers.

“Back when I started in 1997, every municipality had their own dispatchers at the time, and a lot of those kept their dispatchers as long as they could afford,” he said. “You had all these different communities who kept their own dispatchers, and then slowly but surely, they started going away just because they couldn’t afford them, or for whatever reason.”

Dutton added that another massive change during Minder’s career would be the popularization in cell phones and residents getting away from owning a landline.

Minder said that when he started over 80% of the calls received were from landlines but now over 85% of the calls come from cell phones.

Dutton then asked him if there’s a difference on the dispatcher’s end on if a call is received from a cell phone or landline.

He confirmed that when someone would call from a landline the caller’s name and address would appear on a screen in front of the dispatcher but with a cell phone you’ll get a location based on the phone’s GPS, which isn’t always accurate due to if the individual making the call has strong cell phone service.

He added that when residents call on a cell phone the dispatcher does have to ask more questions than when someone calls on a landline.