Turner's rescue chief on call, day and night, for 20 years By Associated Press, 10/14/2000 13:08 TURNER, Maine (AP) The cacophony of the ringing phone and crackling and beeping scanners and radios has filled Laurel Gagne's house day and night for 20 years. For Gagne's house is not only a home. Her living room is Turner's emergency dispatch center, and Gagne is its only staffer. Turner has answered just about every 911 call from the Turner, Leeds and Hartford area since she was hooked up to the emergency system 20 years ago. And she's never been paid a cent. ''I should have kept a journal,'' she said recently, ''but I didn't.'' To her regret, the 71-year-old finds it difficult these days to go out on rescue calls because of a bad knee she expects to have replaced at the end of the month. Turner's other emergency medical technicians respond to most of the calls. ''I enjoy getting on the ambulance and going on calls it keeps me active,'' she said. ''When my body is active my mind stays active.'' Gagne is so devoted that town meetings and emergency calls make up the bulk of the rare times she leaves her vigil. She has a scanner and a hand-held radio in her living room, two more of each scattered throughout her home and four phones. All are on 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and there is a generator in her garage in case she loses power. ''My ears are tuned to those scanners. I can block them out if I want, but I snap to if I hear something important,'' she said. It has become a family thing. Down the road, Gagne's son, Ross, can be found at the Turner Rescue Service and Fire Department building, where he volunteers five days a week. He restocks ambulances with medical supplies, tidies up the garage and waits for his mother to call if there is an emergency. Gagne knows the roads better than most in town. While working as principal of Buckfield Junior/Senior High School, she often rode the bus home with the children so she could learn where they lived in case one was hurt. Sometimes police officers call her to ask for directions to emergencies. Gagne answers about 600 emergency calls a year from her living room. The four town managers who have come and gone during Gagne's tenure as rescue chief have told her she is crazy for never asking for money. But it isn't about money, she said. ''I was brought up to be civic minded,'' she said. [ Send this story to a friend | Easy-print version ]
14Oct00