AUBURN — Jennifer Taylor spent nearly five years squeezing into the narrow Androscoggin County Dispatch Center, a seemingly forgotten corner of the county courthouse stuffed with hand-me-down desks and aging equipment.

But that’s all gone.

The bulky old furniture — designed in an era before computers and given to the county when Lewiston closed its dispatch center in the 1990s — has been replaced by a pair of desks with built-in hydraulics to customize their height to dispatchers, whether they’re seated or standing. Wall-mounted flat screens display images from throughout the courthouse complex. Each station has its own light dimmers, heaters and fans.

Even the new carpeting is made from a special computer-friendly material that reduces the likelihood of conducting static electricity.

Taylor appreciates all of it.

“Definitely, it takes a load off your shoulders to know that they valued you enough to put some time, thought and money into your job,” she said. “We feel much more professional now.”

Such investment has been withheld for a long time.

For almost a decade, county commissioners and regional leaders debated the fate of the dispatch center and whether it should exist at all.

The center’s workers answer all emergency calls from Androscoggin County, except from the cities of Lewiston and Auburn. They also communicate with sheriff’s deputies and several small-town departments.

The dispatchers have not known whether their jobs would be cut. Last fall, commissioners decided to maintain the county center and, for the first time, to charge per capita fees to communities.

The physical changes underline the decision, dispatcher Bob Levesque said Wednesday.

“It’s a huge relief to finally feel that we’re going to be here for a while,” he said.

Their equipment began to change last summer, when the aging radio system cut out during calls. Commissioners approved $98,000 in emergency spending.

The change in furniture and other costs were approved in December by the Budget Committee. The desks cost about $28,000, according to Capt. Raymond Lafrance, who runs county communications. New computers were paid for with a $5,000 Homeland Security grant. Much of the installation work was done by courthouse maintenance workers, further keeping costs down, he said.

The money came from a $250,000 dedicated account set aside by the county five years ago for dispatching work.

“All the employees could see there was money sitting in an account,” Lafrance said. “Nobody could understand why we weren’t moving forward. That was very frustrating to them. They would come to me and say, ‘Why can’t you do this?’ We had to get the powers that be to approve it. Finally, the employees have started to see improvement.”

The renovation on the center began in earnest on April 1. Maintenance crews hauled the old furniture to the dump.

“It went to its final resting place,” Lafrance said. “It’s gone, never to return again.”

dhartill@sunjournal.com

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