By Rusty Nixon Correspondent
PLYMOUTH – Though her job has changed the commute isn’t any longer for Darlene Mangus.
“I’m just walking across the street,” she said of her job move from the Sheriff’s office to be bailiff in Superior Court I.
After 17 years working in county law enforcement, Mangus decided to make the switch when asked to come to work for Judge Robert Bowen.
“Judge Bowen is a very compassionate man. Very considerate. And I wanted to get involved with the other side of the law process.”
Working as a dispatcher for most of her career, Mangus says that nearly every 911 call is an interesting experience.
“You’re trying to save someone’s life,” she said. “You always hope that you’ve done the right thing every time a call comes in.”
She’s also had some harrowing calls in her year’s of service to the community.
“It can be very stressful,” she said. “There have been times when I had to talk somebody through the process of CPR over the phone. I was able to talk someone out of suicide once.
“A lot of times people don’t realize that you don’t know where they are if they call on a cell phone. When people come in from out of town and call with trouble they don’t know where they are. You have to walk them through certain steps to figure out where they are to get them help.”
While her new duties may not involve a lot of life or death situations, it isn’t without it’s own kind of excitement.
“It’s stressful in a different way,” she said. “You have a lot of people in need. And a lot of paper work. The paper work does seem a little overwhelming right now.”
Mangus has confidence that her experience will help her in her new job.
“You have to have good communication skills,” she said. “It’s been very interesting and I’m looking forward to it.”