Butler County 911 dispatch supervisor Terry Sweeney works at his station Friday at the Butler County Emergency Services facility.

BUTLER TWP — Firefighters, police and emergency medical personnel have been expertly handling emergencies in Butler County for 51 years, thanks to the Reader's Digest and a local 94-year-old woman.

The Butler County Chamber of Commerce on Friday honored the half-century of innovative, lifesaving work at the county's 911 center at the chamber's annual Community Champion Luncheon.

The event was held under a tent at the Sunnyview Complex outside the 911 center, where luncheon guests could walk through the county's new mobile command post trailer or check out the plethora of emergency-services equipment stored in a nearby garage.

Seated among the former dispatchers, elected officials and past 911 center directors was nonagenarian Anabel Brunermer, who read an article in the Reader's Digest in 1968 about a new concept in emergency services in which someone experiencing an emergency would dial just three numbers, 9-1-1, to have an ambulance, fire department or police officer dispatched to the caller's location. .

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