911 dispatchers receive honors

Water rates will go up 4.6 percent for some county residents.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Six Mahoning County 911 dispatchers did detective-style work to locate a despondent man before he harmed himself.
Three of the six communications officers -- David Catauro, Edward Chismar and Petra Walsh -- received certificates of appreciation Thursday during the county commissioners' regular weekly meeting. The others -- Michael Miller, Christopher Buday and Debbie Pavelko -- also were to receive certificates from commissioners.
Catauro, Chismar and Miller were working Feb. 8 when a Salem-area man called the 911 center on a cell phone, said Walter M. Duzzny, the county's director of Emergency Management & amp; Communications. The man said he had a gun and was going to kill himself, then hung up.
Tracking him down
The 911 workers replayed a tape of the conversation to hear the man's references to a person and location that was traced to Hiram, in Portage County. The Hiram resident gave them information about the man's former employer, who in turn provided the telephone number of the man's mother. She confirmed that her son had been depressed but didn't know where he could be found, Duzzny said.
Buday, Walsh and Pavelko arrived for their shifts and were told of the situation. They remembered receiving a similar phone call a few weeks earlier and that the man had been staying at a motel near Canfield. They called the motel, confirmed that the man was there, and alerted authorities.
The man was found in the motel parking lot, in a pickup truck, with a gun in his mouth, Duzzny said. He was taken to a local hospital for psychiatric care.
The 911 staff may not have to go to such lengths in the future. Mahoning County is taking steps to implement a cellular 911 system that includes technology to find cell phone callers, just as 911 calls from land-line phones can be traced to locations. Duzzny hopes the new system will be in operation later this year.
Water rates
In other business, commissioners approved new water rates between Aqua Ohio, Inc. and 18,000 customers in the county. Customers will pay 4.6 percent more for water each year through 2008.
Governments in the affected areas: Poland village and township, New Middletown, Lowellville, Struthers and Beaver, Coitsville, Springfield, Canfield and Boardman townships -- negotiated and approved the new rates, which were to be effective as of Feb. 1.
shaulis@vindy.com