By Eamon Baird
TROY — Jeff Busch is retiring after 13 years as the Miami County Communications Center director on Wednesday, Nov. 22.
Busch, who previously served as a police officer at the Centerville Police Department for nine years and a major for the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office for 22 years, discussed why he is stepping aside.
“It’s good timing, I felt, for several reasons,” Busch said. “The state of Ohio, starting July 1, began to implement what’s called the ‘Next-Generation 911.‘ It’s going to be about a five to seven-year process to where all the 911 centers will be connected through the Athena network. So, I felt like it was a good time for somebody else to be in here and lead the organization through that change.”
Busch, who affectionately referred to this as his “second retirement” said he will spend more time with his wife and teenage son, but that doesn’t mean he will slow down.
“My wife promises me to have a long list,” Busch said, with a smile.
When asked what he would miss most about the job, Busch talked about the dispatchers who serve all of Miami County.
“They just do an amazing, amazing job. I’ve been in there when nothing’s really going on, and you’re chatting with somebody, and next thing, every phone line lights up, and something really bad has happened sometimes in multiple locations, and they just handle it,” Busch said.
The Miami County Communications Center staffs 17 full-time dispatchers and five supervisors. Dispatchers and supervisors are certified Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) with CPR certification.
Busch added that it takes a special type of person to be able to work at the center, and one of the biggest obstacles he faced as director was keeping staffing.
“Well, it’s an industry-wide challenge. It can be a very stressful job. So, we’ve had a couple of good stretches, where we had three or four years, two or three years where we didn’t have any vacancies,” Busch said.
Beth Hull will replace Busch and serve as the interim communications director. The Miami Communications Board of Directors will then go through the process of potentially hiring her for the position, beginning next year.
Busch shared advice for the next director of the Communications Center.
“Take good care of the staff and keep current with technology; it’s constantly changing. Now that we’ve changed CAD systems from systems and radio systems, we’ve added automated fire dispatching efficient learning. So, it’s just do your best to keep up with technology and take good care of the staff,” Busch said.
