When you’re in an emergency or witness one, it’s who is on the other end of that call, the dispatchers who answer. It’s a vital part of getting the right people in the right places in the shortest amount of time in order to  save lives and property.

Maryanne Christensen, Dispatch Supervisor with the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, spoke with SVI about what her offices do.

“We take calls for service and deploy resources and coordinate with other agencies,” she answered. “Not every day is busy but there are days when multiple things that happening all at once.”

RELATED: RADIO INTERVIEW WITH MARYANNE CHRISTENSEN –

Lincoln County has two dispatch offices, one in Kemmerer and one in Afton. They both work together.

“A lot of other agencies have a backup center,” Christensen stated. “We run both of our centers in tandom. We have a direct link and both centers answer.  Our computer-aided dispatch is One Call; we all add notes into it and we all have access so the responders have complete information.”

While the Dispatch Center is under the direction of the Sheriff’s Office, it works with many other entities, counties in in Lincoln County’s case, even states.

“We coordinate with Fire, EMS and law enforcement and coordinate with Wyoming Highway Patrol, the Forest Service and even Bonneveille, Caribou and Rich county; out of state.”

For a long time the Lincoln County Dispatch Center has needed bodies, but right now is fully staffed.

“Believe it or not, we are fully staffed so we have 12 people,” Christensen said. “Two are part-time. It’s very rare to be fully staffed. That’s a nationwide issue.”

In the case of western Wyoming, sometimes cell phone towers can be an extra challenge as they cross borders. For example, Alpine residents and visitors to the area may be running off Idaho towers when the need for dispatch arises. Christiansen noted that they are able to work around these types of issues.

“We have a program called Rapid SOS and it shows up on our screen,” she continued. “If it’s in our dispatch area, even if it goes to Bonneville we know the location. So we can relay information to each other.”

If you have a need to contact the local dispatch, how can you help the process?

“Location, location location,” Christensen said. “If we don’t know where to send, we can’t help. If we can get the address we can send someone that direction even if we lose a call. We get a pretty good ping unless it’s in a spotty service area. For the most part, the technology and GPS of the phone itself, it’s better than it used to be. Answer our questions. It may seem like we are not sending out but we have multiple dispatchers working at the same time. We are taking information while someone else is dispatching.”

The Lincoln County Dispatch Center handled approximately 4,500 calls in the last year with some days “ringing off the hook” and other days with just a single call.

“During the summer we have a lot of traffic so our calls are almost double,” Christensen noted.

There is a legislative effort at the national level to make dispatch services an essential portion instead of a clerical one.

“We are trained in a lot of situations where we instruct callers to help with a positive outcome,” Christensen added. “On the state level we have representatives going to D.C. to support dispatchers as a professional essential service and not just a clerical service. There has to be a reclassification for that to happen.”

The 911 SAVES ACT is a legislative proposal aimed at doing this. The impact of getting this change could help with data collection, recognition and potentially access to grants, benefits and mental health resources that are often available to other first-responders. Currently the act was introduced in the U.S. House and referred to the House Committee on Education and the Workforce in January of 2025. It is currently under consideration by the committee. There is not specific date set for a floor vote in either chamber at this time. To pass the act would need to pass both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.

At the end of the day, it seems Christensen is in the right place.

“I love helping people and I love my team,” she concluded. “They are the best. They are always willing to help.”