Lesson for Whitcom County After Lapse in Dispatch Service

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(TNS) – Whitcom officials paid a visit to Asotin County on Monday to talk about a lapse in dispatch service over the Fourth of July weekend.

Bill Tensfeld, Whitman County’s emergency management director, and Wendy Berrett, executive director of Whitcom Regional Dispatch Center, fielded questions from Asotin County officials about the breakdown in communication during the incident.

Commissioners said the situation could’ve been disastrous for Asotin County residents, and it should never happen again.

Tensfeld said in hindsight, there was a big gap in informing Asotin County about a technology glitch that impeded service June 30 and July 1. Consoles at the dispatch center are being upgraded, and the project didn’t go as planned, he said.

“Lesson learned,” Tensfeld said. “We could’ve done better communicating.”

Tensfeld, the lead project manager, said everything was going smoothly earlier that week, but problems arose right before the holiday weekend. The consensus was to carry on, instead of delaying the project until November or December.

During the outage, emergency dispatch service to Asotin County was disrupted. Fire Chief Noel Hardin and Assistant Fire Chief Mike Hohman handled the situation by monitoring the scanner for fires, and Lewiston dispatchers helped with medical calls. The problem was no one from Whitcom or Whitman County informed them about the technical issues, officials said.

“Why didn’t you call us?” asked Commissioner Brian Shinn. “Just pick up the phone.”

Berrett said updates were provided at executive board meetings, but “we just didn’t go far enough.” An upgrade in 2014 was completed without any problems, and this project was supposed to be similar.

“This was not seamless,” Berrett said. “We were not expecting this at all.”

Commissioner Chuck Whitman said he was a project manager for many years, and the lapse in service and lack of communication were unacceptable.

“If I’d have done what you did, I would’ve been fired,” Whitman said.

The project is far from complete, Tensfeld said, and updates will be provided on a regular basis.

“We need to make sure something like this doesn’t happen again,” Commissioner Chris Seubert said. “I don’t think anything like this ever goes seamless.”

In other county business, another longtime Asotin Creek area resident added his name to the list of people upset about junk piling up on a few rural properties.

Jon Mallory, 79, asked county officials to address the persistent eyesores, saying he’s lived along the creek for more than four decades and the problems aren’t going away.

Junk vehicles are being parked in the county right of way along Asotin Creek Road, and a few property owners have been ignoring ordinances and violating codes for years, Mallory said.

“I think the county needs to give them a written warning, and if they don’t clean up their mess by a certain date, the county should remove the junk and send them the bill,” Mallory told the Lewiston Tribune.

“The commissioners said they’ll take it under advisement. I told them that ain’t good enough. It’s been under advisement for 45 years. Quit talking and do something.”

Three other longtime Asotin Creek Road residents aired similar complaints at a recent commission meeting. The board and law enforcement have said they are aware of the issues and working on solutions.

A conditional-use permit was unanimously approved for Kayel Properties to build 68 commercial storage units at 1423 Highland Ave., Clarkston. Karst Riggers, building official, said the permit was required because the units will be constructed in a residential zone.

Public Works Director Russ Pelleberg was granted permission to change the stormwater clerk position from 32 hours to 40 hours a week. Pelleberg said the county currently doesn’t have a full-time stormwater coordinator since he became the public works director, and the clerk has been extremely busy.