3 Trainees Hired for Schuylkill County 9-1-1

Schuylkill County Commissioners approved the hiring of 3 telecommunicator trainees on Wednesday.

The 3 hires will start at the training rate of $15.50 per hour. If they make it out of the training period and become the next desperately needed 9-1-1 dispatchers, they’d start at $16.50 per hour.

The people hired Wednesday are:

• Brandon Blank, Ashland
• Justin Boudreaux, Orwigsburg
• Karlei Olmos, Hegins

These hires come after months of public pleading by their AFSCME union representative, Andrew Koslosky, to address a severe shortage of dispatchers at the Schuylkill County 9-1-1 operations center.

Koslosky has asked Commissioners to meet with him to discuss addressing the shortage of dispatchers at Schuylkill County 9-1-1 and the pay rate he considers low.

He wants the Commissioners to open the contract that governs the pay rate for dispatchers. That contract expires in about 2 years.

There is a shortage of 7 dispatchers at Schuylkill County 9-1-1. Before today’s trainee additions, there was one other person working as a telecommunicator trainee.