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Show ; ; !' dispatchers seek raises vancing into another job within the city or looking for a job elsewhere. : : He noted that 14 dispatchers have left the police department in the last four years. "Almost without exception excep-tion the reason given was there is too much stress and not enough pay,"' he said, f The salary request is an average raise of about 10 percent with a starting - salary of $8.05 per hour compared to $730 per hour. Top salary sa-lary after 20 years would be $13.12 per hour compared to $11.91 per hour. ;v" "V'1-'','' ' "But who looks ahead to a top salary 20 years down the road when the average -job span is less than three years," said one dispatcher. " We need the increase in the early years as an incentive to stay. ' -Sgt Collard said ,the recom-. . mended pay raise would put the dispatchers in the top, one-third of dispatcher pay for cities of similar size along the Wasatch Front. Mayor Dean . Stahle said he agrees that the dispatchers do a remarkable re-markable job of handling bom routine rou-tine and emergency calls - and certainly cer-tainly deserve a salary increase. "But we have to be careful when ' it comes to salary raises because there are a lot of city employees who rightfully feel that they, too, deserve a substantial raise for the jobs that they are doing,' he said. The proposed' increase' will amount to about $5,000 for the next six months of this fiscal year. The council took the proposal under advisement and said it would review the matter again tonight. I By GARY R. BLODGETT f : BOUNTIFUL - Considering the , : extreme, stress and anxiety of their ; -job, Bountiful police dispatchers - have asked the City Council for a pyraise. .. ',..-; - Five of the six female dispatchers - they left one to handle the police - r calls explained to the council that j ''dispatchers have one of the tnost : " : stressful jobs in the city and that an ; increase in salary would do a lot to - -, i keep them on the job beyond two" ' ; years.", : '4''.wv'!.-; .v':-- "One dispatcher explained that the , job entails a lot more than answer-' iingv the telephone and typing up police reports. "We must not only :be tactful with the public but we N r ihust also be a psychologist to every 5caller,"shesaid- r "When we have a hysterical per son on the line whose baby , has nearly drowned or whose loved one is suffering a heart attack, we must know how to respond in such a way as to keep the caller calm and alk-ing alk-ing until the paramedics arrive," she explained. , .: : T ..v " ; This is not an easy thing to do, and not everyone has the ability to do it without goinjptq pieces. It takes a special type" person to be a. dispatcher and to stick with the job - more than just a few years." : -i t' Sgt. Bill Collard, in charge of dispatching, (bid the council that the average Vjob span' - for dispatchers : 7 is less than three years. "By then, : ; they tend to bum out and the stress is just too much for. them to handle." ': 1 (. ' He said that's the major reason the salary increase is being sought . - as an incentive for dispatchers to . continue working instead of ad- |