KINGWOOD — Ever wonder what it would be like to be the person answering the phone in an emergency? Tour the Preston 911/Emergency Management center Friday and find out.
“We have a lot of people who don’t really understand what the job actually is, and we just felt that having an open house would give the opportunity to see the work environment and what the job actually entails,” said 911/Emergency Management Director Duane Hamilton.
Many people equate working at 911 with being a secretary, he said, working 9 til 5. That’s why the preferred job title is telecommunicator, which more accurately reflects what the people do, Hamilton said.
Preston 911 employs 11 full-time telecommunicators and about two part-time workers. They handled more than 30,000 calls last year. “That’s traffic stops and everything,” Hamilton said.
Preston telecommunicators oversee a multitude of radio frequencies; four trunk phone lines, which 911 calls come over; and 13 other phone lines.
They train a minimum of six months before they can fill a position as a telecommunicator.
“And we don’t really consider them 100 percent trained until about two years,” Hamilton said.
Starting salary is $13 to $13.50 per hour, with no extra compensation for working nights, weekends and holidays.
In addition to seeing the center at work, anyone attending the open house can also pick up a job application and test for a position.
