Lenny Morgan

Lenny Morgan began his career as a dispatcher in Windham in1977. “I dispatched for police, fire, and EMS at the same time,” he began. “We worked in three rooms at the back of the old fire station. The bathroom floor was half dirt. It was like Mayberry RFD.” Now retired because of injuries sustained in a car accident, Lenny wishes he was still there. “I still call them my guys,” he said fondly. “I may get mad at them sometimes but have the greatest respect for what they do.” In 1978, the department moved to the house next to the current SAU building on Route 111. It wasn’t until 1999 that they moved into the new police station.

The job of dispatcher can be very stressful at times. “I loved it. You could say I’m an adrenaline junkie,” said Lenny. “You know how they say, the sh*# hit the fan? Well, we [dispatchers] are the fan.” They are the first people to receive calls when there is an emergency. It is up to them to quickly gather the information and send the needed equipment to the scene. His first day on the job was filling in for his brother, who was a dispatcher at the time. He was out sick and they asked him to fill in. “That was when there were about 5,000-7,000 people in town. Now there are close to 15,000,” said Lenny. “The police and fire departments keep getting bigger but they don’t see the need to expand the number of dispatchers. If they call in sick, who do you call?” The fact that the Windham Fire Department contracted out to Derry to do their dispatching has recently been in the papers and is a sore subject for Lenny. Lenny is outspoken and opinionated when it comes to his former job.

“We have had people come in to train but they leave because it is too busy. It’s a hard job to train people in,” he said. Windham Police Captain Yatsevich touted Lenny’s communication skills, his ability to mulit-task and his sense of humor as his assets. “He had a lot of experience and was a lot of fun,” said Captain Yatsevich. Captain Yatsevich had been a dispatcher at one time and could empathize with Lenny.

While on duty, a dispatcher has three computers to monitor and work on; the 911 system, the S.P.O.T.S. system which is connected nationwide to all police departments and the in-house computer. “Our primary job is to get the people help and keep our officers safe,” said Lenny. “We take that responsibility very seriously.”

The worst parts of the job for him were dealing with the death of a child, fellow employee or friend. “All have happened to me,” recalls Lenny. “A friend who had cancer had said he was going to die on my shift, and he did.” On a lighter note, while Lenny was fielding a call about a house fire, he quickly realized that the address was his. “My neighbor was on the phone telling me he could see fire in the walls,” he laughed. “There wasn’t too much damage.” The fire at Klemm’s was another situation he remembers vividly. He wasn’t on duty when the call came in though. “Imagine the worst case scenario, a fire at a busy intersection at rush hour. Roads needed to be closed, equipment sent back up called and oh, there were also three car accidents at that same time too,” said Lenny.

Being a dispatcher is like being a jack-of-all-trades. Lenny had his own way of describing it. “Police officers get sworn in, we get sworn at.” “I have thought of writing a book one day about some of the amusing things,” joked Lenny. “I would call it As the Stomach Churns.” Picking up the phone and hearing people in distress can be emotionally exhausting. Helping a residents discover that the thumping sound she was hearing was her off-balance washing machine ‘balances the load’. Then there was the loose cow… In the future, Lenny hopes that the Selectman and the Departments support the dispatchers and give them the help they deserve. Presently, there are only five full-time dispatchers and one part-time dispatcher. “It would be great if they understood that having two people on 24/7 would make the safest scenario,” stated Lenny. He recalls a recent conversation with a Salem dispatcher about the number of calls they handled a year concerning Route 93. Last year it was about 1,400 and this year they are expecting close to 4,000 because of upcoming construction. “The town of Windham was more mileage on 93 than Salem,” cautioned Lenny. “I hope they will be ready to handle it.”

For now, Lenny is still recovering from his accident and preparing for an upcoming operation on his shoulder. He resides in Chester.