Christmas is a work day for some

Most businesses will shut their doors for Christmas so their employees can enjoy the holiday with their families. However, some services, such as emergency communications and law enforcement, have to be manned all day, every day, including Christmas. Sandy Lovetinsky has been a dispatcher at the Washington Communications Center for 22 years and has worked nearly every Christmas.

?In 22 years, I have not worked Christmas four or five times,? she said. ?Part of that has to do with our rotation, and part of it has to do with the holiday pay.?

Holiday pay is two and a half times more than regular pay, Lovetinsky said. A normal shift for Lovetinsky is to work six days and then get three days off. She works three evenings in a row, from 4 p.m. to midnight, which started Thursday. From Sunday through Tuesday she will work three morning shifts.

Lovetinsky said she likes that schedule because she gets off early enough Tuesday to make it seem as though she has four days off in a row. This year, her schedule will require her to work until midnight Christmas Eve and come back in Christmas morning at 8 a.m. She said the communications center used to have a sign-up sheet to work holidays, but it has gone away from that.

?Whoever is on schedule works that day,? she said.

Lovetinsky has two daughters, 13 and 11 years of age. She said her daughters are used to her schedule and know that she often has to work on holidays. She said it?s not really a both on Christmas since her daughters are eager to open their presents early in the morning.

?They?re up at 6:30 a.m.,? she said. ?They open all their presents and then I?m off to work. When I get home, we have a dinner together.?

Lovetinsky said she sometimes receives a few more calls than normal on Christmas and other holidays.

?We used to get a lot of fire calls on Thanksgiving,? she said. ?Sometimes people fight when they have their whole family over. They?re not feeling the Christmas spirit. Normally, it?s pretty quiet, though.?

Washington Police Officer Ron See works a similar schedule to Lovetinsky?s in that he has six days on and three days off. One of those ?days on? is Christmas. See has two daughters, 23-year-old Miranda and 18-year-old Morgan.

?When my daughters were younger, we celebrated the holiday on Christmas Day,? he said. ?They didn?t sleep in on Christmas, but they couldn?t come downstairs before Mom gave them the OK.?

See said he?d prefer to spend all of Christmas with his family but he knows that his line of work does not always allow that.

?It?s something that is part of the career I?ve chosen,? he said.

He said that Christmas Day is usually just like any other day of the year in terms of reported crime.

?It seems like the morning is quieter and then the activity picks up in the afternoon,? he said. ?It seems like there are invariably a few domestics on Christmas Day. Most of the time it?s verbal arguments, but there have been some physical ones over the years.?

Nathan Schmuecker is a Washington County deputy and he, too, will work on Christmas. He said that he also thinks there are slightly more domestic disputes on Christmas.

?The weather is cold, and you have people in confined areas,? he said. ?A lot of people are not in their own setting, so there is definitely the possibility for an increase in domestics.?

Schmuecker said that the absence of ice and snow on the roads will make his job much easier. He said he notices traffic pick up around Christmas and is higher than normal even on Christmas Day.

Schmuecker works a different schedule from Lovetinsky and See. Schmuecker works five days and then gets two days off. His off days are Wednesday and Thursday. He said he celebrated Christmas with his family Thursday in Marengo, which is where he normally celebrates it.