LIVERMORE FALLS – The steady, calm voice of Larry Heald has been heard over police radios and scanners for years as he dispatched police, fire and ambulance crews to emergencies in the area.

Come the morning of May 4, the Jay man will call it a career after 18 years. His soothing voice will go silent over the airwaves.

But he’ll keep busy. He plans to spend more time with family, especially his grandchildren.

“They’re growing up way too fast,” Heald said.

This summer, Heald and his wife or 47 years, Shirley, a retired nurse, and their two children and five grandchildren will pack their campers and travel to see Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, and Yellowstone National Park and Glacier National Park in Wyoming.

Heald is looking forward to those days of leisure and catching up on his “honey-do list.”

“I am going on 66 years old, so it’s time for me to retire and let some of these young people come in and take over,” Heald said Tuesday night.

Emergency dispatching is actually his second career. He worked at International Paper for 20 years in the pipe shop as a welder until he hurt his back.

The dispatching job was ideal for him, he said, because he can do the work from his chair and get up and walk around in between calls when he needs to.

“I like helping the people in need,” Heald said. “They know where to call if they need help and we do our best to get help to them as best and as quick as we can.”

When that call for help comes in he doesn’t get ruffled. He just keeps his wits about him and goes through the emergency procedures.

“You can’t do any good if you get all panicky,” Heald said. “They’re the (people) who need help. You lock it down inside you sometimes, so we don’t show our emotions.”

The most tragic situation he’s experienced, he said, is staying on the phone to try keeping someone calm as their loved one is dying.

“A lot of times we don’t know if our efforts are successful,” he said. “Hopefully, they’ll all be successes but they aren’t.”

Heald and his wife volunteered to help on the former Community Emergency Services ambulance for about six years when it first started. Now its known as NorthStar Emergency Services Livermore.

He also worked as a volunteer dispatcher.

Times have changed over the years. One of the biggest changes was going from reading motor vehicle records that were kept on microfiche to computerized records, he said.

“We’ve gone into the computer age now and for us old-timers going into the computer is hard on us,” Heald said.

But like everything else, he learned how to do it.

He’s also seen a dramatic increase in emergency calls over the years.

The voice of Falls 4, police officer Maurice Drouin, came over the radio and interrupted the quiet in the station. Heald pushed a button on the base-radio to respond.

A few seconds later, Falls 21, Jason Miller, calls in on the radio and Heald responds. Both times he records notes on a log.

It won’t be hard to leave the job behind, he said.

“I’ve been here long enough. It does wear on you after a while,” Heald said. “I’ll miss the people I work with. There’s a lot of good people here.”