Paint fumes send PD dispatchers packing Monday
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Camping out STAFF PHOTO BY PHIL REYNOLDS Emergency dispatcher Crystal Bath "camps out" at the Aransas Princess condominiums while painters finish working on the police station. Operations were moved to the Aransas Princess on Tuesday because paint fumes threatened to make workers ill at police headquarters.

Port Aransas emergency radio dispatchers are "camping out" for a few days at the Aransas Princess condominiums on Beach Access Road 1A while paint fumes clear out from police headquarters.

The interior painting at the police building, 705 W. Avenue A, had been scheduled for some time. However, once painting got under way, the people who work there started becoming ill from the paint fumes, Police Chief Sam Russell said.

Tuesday evening, dispatch operations were moved to a room at the condominiums to give the paint a chance to dry and allow the fumes to dissipate. Russell said dispatchers and others who normally work at the headquarters building should be back "home" in a couple of days.

While away from their normal workplace, dispatchers are using special emergency communications kits bought through a grant from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Russell said. The kits allow complete police dispatch operations to be run from a remote location.

Three of the kits were ordered, but weren't finished in time for the temporary move. However, the contractor managed to finish one of the kits and get it in place for this week, said Lt. James Stokes.

The Aransas Princess was chosen as temporary dispatch headquarters because police radio antennas that relay messages to units in the field are located nearby, Russell said. That allowed dispatchers to use hand-held radios, which have weaker transmission signals, to work while waiting for the emergency kit to be delivered.

"The good thing about it is that we've found some bugs in the kits that will have to be corrected," Russell said. "It's better that we located those bugs under a situation like this, than under a real emergency."

The Aransas Princess donated the use of the rooms to the city, he said.

Calls to the non-emergency police phone number, 749-6241, and to the emergency 911 number, are being routed to the temporary dispatch station overlooking the Aransas Princess pool.

Despite the change in scenery and surroundings, dispatcher Crystal Bath - surrounded by extension cords and paperwork and cell phones on tables - said she'd be glad to get back to her regular workplace.