Schuylkill County commissioners on Wednesday beefed up the staff at the 911 communications center by hiring three new employees.

They were hired as telecommunication trainees, or dispatchers, starting at $15.50 an hour.

They are Brandon Blank, Ashland; Justin Boudreaux, Orwigsburg; and Karlei Olmos, Hegins.

They’ll start their jobs on Dec. 18.

The dispatchers will get one dollar more per hour once they finish training.

Commissioners also approved of Shelly Smith-Boyer, North Manheim Township, to administrative secretary, at $20.03 an hour. She was previously employed as a secretary in the county Emergency Management Agency. She’ll also start her new job on Dec. 18.

The 911 center staff has been stretched thin, finding it hard to recruit dispatchers for the high-stress work.

The pay scale has been cited as a major reason for the dearth of applicants.

In September, commissioners agreed to allow the 911 center to move $92,000 from one line item in its budget to another to pay for extra overtime hours that dispatchers have been working.

The line item change didn’t allocate more money from the general fund.

Rather, it just shifted funds from one line item in the center’s budget to another.

At the time, 911 Director Scott Krater told commissioners he’d budgeted for a full staff of personnel, “but we’re not having a full staff of personnel.”

He said then that there were 17 dispatchers doing the work of 25.

Schuylkill County is not alone in its struggle to hire and retain staff, said Ruth A. Miller, who is director of communications for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

In February, she said staffing shortages were happening in many counties across the state.

Low wages were a common reason in addition to being required to work holidays, weekends, and overnights.

Add that to the stress of handling life-or-death situations, and that makes for one tough job.

“Telecommunicators are the first first responders and this job takes a mental and emotional toll,” she said at the time.