Emergency dispatchers will get another three co-workers next year to help relieve pressures on working conditions and meet the needs of a growing community, Douglas County commissioners decided Tuesday.

The county’s Emergency Dispatch Center will be allowed to fill up to 22 dispatch jobs in 2003, up from the current limit of 19, commissioners said. The center currently has 15 dispatchers on staff; four dispatchers have left since March.

Jim Denney, the county’s director of emergency communications, originally sought permission to hire another six dispatchers. His request won support from the Lawrence police chief, Douglas County sheriff, chief of Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical, all county department heads and County Administrator Craig Weinaug, who included the jobs in his operating budget.

Lawrence city commissioners also unanimously backed the full hiring plans and were willing to spend $125,000 next year to cover the city’s 66 percent share of the new employees salaries, benefits and associated costs. The county runs the center and finances 34 percent of its budget.

But county commissioners particularly Commissioner Charles Jones were wary of the need, and they cut the request back to three new employees. Commissioners also imposed several restrictions on the center for the next three years:

Denney cannot ask the county commission for any more money for new hires.

Denney cannot ask for more money to boost salaries, although dispatchers will continue to receive normal cost-of-living boosts afforded all county employees.

Denney must cut his overtime budget in half to account for the expected decline in personnel demands brought on by the new employees.

Denney had argued that all six new dispatchers were needed to cut into employee burnout, reduce turnover and boost efficiency for the increasingly high-tech center, which handled 144,000 calls last year for police, fire and medical services.

But Jones openly questioned the need, saying the squeeze on resources was more of a “management issue.”

Jones insisted Denney repeat the commission’s restrictions for getting money for new employees just so that there would be no confusion during the next three years.

The restrictions could be lifted only if “all hell breaks loose,” Jones said.