Published: June 17, 2009 06:54 pm      

Director proud of emergency system

DANVILLE — For a Navy man and former police radio operator, three numbers describe the work he has put in for Vermilion County: 9-1-1.

Vic Vanesse, director of the 911 Communications Center, is making the decision to leave his post. He is retiring after more than 30 years of making sure residents could reach emergency personnel and those personnel knew where to help residents.

Unlike many longtime employees who have trouble picking out a highlight of their career, Vanesse has no problems pointing to his — Vermilion County’s institution of the current 911 system.

“I feel very proud of that and it’s quite a monumental move,” he said. “We went all the way from the basic 911 with the basic three-digit number to Phase 2 wireless, which is where you get the name and address and spot a call on the map within a reason-able distance.

“I take pride that it’s working.”

Vanesse has been involved in communications in one form or another for a number of years. He started out as a radio operator in the U.S. Navy. He then worked almost a decade for the Illinois State Police as a radio technician and dispatcher.

He applied for his current post in 1976 and got the job, concentrating the next 33 years of his life on initiating and evolving the 911 system.

Vanesse, who turns 70 later this fall, said he looks at the history of the 911 system in stages. Now, with his retirement, he’s entering a new stage of his own.

“We’ve got the communication center up, everything’s running very well; the equipment’s running good,” he said. “I feel like ‘OK, I’ve done all that I can do.’ It’s time to enjoy some gardening, traveling, some other stuff.”

The 911 system in Vermilion County began with the city and county officers being dispatched out of the newly built Public Safety Building in 1976. Calls were printed on cards and handed from console to console for record keeping at that time, but quickly technology took over.

The Danville Fire Department and several fire protection districts were added to the mix just two years later and, in 1980, the first computer-aided system was brought in. A county referendum began the implementation of the Enhanced 911 system in 1990 and in 2004 the wireless Phase 2 system was enabled.

Vanesse has watched the number of dispatchers and the overall system grow year after year. But on Monday — the first workday he won’t head in to the Public Safety Building — he’s convinced he won’t miss it.

“As far as missing it, I’ll miss the folks. But the other things, I will be very relieved that I don’t have those problems that may arise and the ongoing pressures you have.

“Although I know in my heart there will be a great fondness forever, I feel that I have given my 33 years. I’ll let somebody run it the way they want to run it.”