Staff writer
And then there were two.
For nearly three decades, the dispatchers' voices could be heard on police scanners as they sent police, fire and ambulance crews to scenes of crashes and fires and other emergencies.
With the retirement last week of Bob Ketzell, just Dan Capane and Debbie Emph Cadez remain from the staff that watched the 911 emergency dispatch center go from a switchboard and punch cards to a state-of-the-art computerized system.
Formed in the mid-1970s, the IGCO - short for Inter-Governmental Communications Organization - consisted of a group of municipalities that ran the 911 system as a cooperative. Each community paid a fee based on population to pay salaries and other expenses for the center. The IGCO continued to operate the 911 center in cramped quarters on Brownson Avenue above the Washington fire station until it was taken over by the county in April 1994 and moved to Courthouse Square.
Initially, just Washington, Canonsburg, Houston and North Strabane Township were part of the regional dispatch system.
Capane was one of the first to be hired in May 1977, followed a few weeks later by Ketzell. Cadez started in May 1980.
Two other former IGCO dispatchers, Chris Openbrier and Linda West, who were hired later, also work for Washington County's 911 center.
The three veterans took different routes to the dispatch console. Capane, who was 22 years old at the time and newly married, had worked for the former Thorofare grocery store chain and had just come off a long strike. Ketzell had been a radio disc jockey and later worked for Washington Hospital. Cadez worked at Brockway Glass until it closed its doors.
Capane's first call was a memorable one. He was working with a Washington police desk sergeant.
"It was a jail break with 13 prisoners over the wall," Capane said. "It was strictly on-the-job training. I saw the dispatch room once before I started. It was have a seat and take it as it goes."
Cadez had second thoughts about her new career before she finished her first shift.
"The first day I worked, there was a fatal crash in North Strabane Township," Cadez said. "I got through the call OK, but afterward, I went into the office and called my mom. I broke down and cried; it was so emotional for me. But I made it through, and I am still here today, 28 years later," she said.
Ketzell will never forget the day he was supposed to be on vacation but ended up working and helping to save a baby's life.
"A lady from Houston called to say her 9-month-old drowned in the bathtub," Ketzell said. "I had worked for an ambulance service and was able to talk her through CPR. The baby was breathing again when the ambulance arrived, and he survived."
Initially, callers had to dial a seven-digit number to reach the dispatch center. The 911 emergency number went into effect about a year later.
Ketzell said the only computer used in the early years was the National Crime Information Computer.
"We did everything by hand and wrote down the calls on cards that we punched through on a clock like a time clock," Ketzell said. "Cards for different services, whether police, ambulance or fire, were put in dividers. If the call was open, it (the card) would be standing up. When the call was closed, we'd put it down."
In the early days, police departments were assigned alpha designations for on-air identification purposes. Now they use numbers assigned to the fire departments in their area.
"When we switched over to the new system, some would still refer to themselves with the old system," Cadez said. "We'd have to remind Charlie-1 in Canonsburg that he was 69-30."
The three admit to missing those early years when they knew most of the emergency workers they dispatched. Police officers often would drop by to pick up paperwork and stay to chat if they were not busy. They frequently brought dispatchers food and coffee.
"I became good friends with a lot of them," Capane said. "I've been to some of their weddings and some of their funerals. It was nice being able to associate a name with a face," he added.
Cadez agreed.
"We were more like family," Cadez said. "It seems like we knew all the police we dispatched. Now, the way our shifts go, we may not even talk to the same officers twice in the same month."
Ketzell said there was an advantage to getting the calls and then dispatching the appropriate department.
"We knew what was going on," Ketzell said. "We could put some emotion into the response so police had a sense of how serious it was.
"With the new system, there is no way to take the call and give it out yourself," he added. "We don't know the police anymore, and they don't know us."
Cadez said dispatchers are much busier now, since the center handles calls for the entire county.
"But it was good in the old days when we could stay on the line with the caller and ask more questions to get more information for whoever was responding," Cadez said. "Sometimes you have to talk to the callers in different ways. Some needed comforted. Others you needed to be stern with. Knowing what people needed came with experience."
They all have memorable moments at the dispatch desk.
"There have been a few murders, fatal fires and bad accidents along the way," Capane said. "And there have been funny ones, like New Year's Eve in 1986 or 1987 when a drunk lady got stuck in the bathtub."
Capane was on duty when Washington police Officer Dallas Williams was shot. Williams, who is now retired from the force, was shot in May 1985 while chasing a burglar at the former Open Pantry, now Uni-Mart, on North Main Street. His bulletproof vest is credited with saving his life.
During the big snow of 1993, Capane was picked up at his home by Washington police in a Humvee borrowed from the Pennsylvania National Guard.
"There's been a lot of stuff I'll never forget," Capane said.
Capane said callers continue to abuse the 911 number.
"People use it to get information, not necessarily an emergency," Capane said. "We still get calls, for example, every Fourth of July, about the parade and fireworks in Canonsburg."
Ketzell has no plans for retirement, other than taking a trip later this year to Disney World in Orlando, Fla., with his wife, children and grandchildren.