Noreen O’Hara will be going to work for Clarion University as a dispatcher for its public safety officers on the midnight shift, Noreen’s favorite hours to work.

O’Hara moved to Clarion Borough in 1970 from Manhattan , New York . She calls the borough “as woodsy as I want to get.”

“I started working for the county on Dec. 21, 1973 and 9-1-1 service started on April 17, 1973 ,” O’Hara told the Clarion News.

A lot has changed during O’Hara’s tenure, particularly the equipment she handles on the day-to-day operations in the dispatch center.

“Everything is computerized now,” Noreen said. “It’s more high tech.”

“I will only be dispatching police for the university, so it won’t be as stressful as it sometimes is here,” O’Hara said of her new post.

Noreen has trained over 20 dispatchers for the county and was called an excellent trainer by Mary Rearick, another dispatcher from OES.

“When things get busy and then finally calm down and we are still able to laugh, we know we did our job right,” Rearick said of working with O’Hara.

“We’ve handled over 100 calls in two hours before,” O’Hara commented. “It gets crazy sometimes.”

“My pet peeve as a dispatcher has always been 9-1-1 calls around Halloween looking for trick-or-treating times in Clarion or Strattanville Boroughs,” O’Hara said. “It ties up important lines here at the center.”

“Noreen O’Hara has served our county for over 34 years. She has provided a soothing and caring voice to many people in the time of need. It has been a privilege to be a coworker and a boss to Noreen. She will be sadly missed at this office. I wish her the best of luck in the future!” OES Coordinator Michael Rearick said.

“I have worked with a great bunch of people here and will miss it,” O’Hara said.