Letter: Hiring of regional 911 director doesn't smell right

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February 9, 2012

The Salem News Thu Feb 09, 2012, 04:33 AM EST

To the editor:

We recently learned a director has been hired for the new regional 911 dispatch center (the Essex County Regional Emergency Communication Center).

Lo and behold, the new director of this new state bureaucracy is the same consultant hired to go from town to town telling us all how great this new arrangement will be. As of yet, the salary has not been finalized, but will be around $100,000.

Next there will be the assistant directors and their aides.

Will these also come from the same group that encouraged this $8 million taxpayer start-up? Are the proverbial no-show jobs next?

The towns that opted out smelled something fishy and rightly so!

If the new director thinks the situation in Pennsylvania "is a little bit political" — which is what he told The Salem News was his reason for not applying for his current job there — think what he is in for, here in Massachusetts.

Paul Nowak

Topsfield

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