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Lombard Honoring Longtime Employee

(CBS) -- The Lombard village board will be honoring one of the village's employees for an exceptional anniversary.

"Fifty years. January 3, 50 years it was," says Carol Bauer who started in 1966 as a police dispatcher right out of high school.

She says the police chief, at the time, wasn't too keen about having her in that job but she was determined to prove she could do it. So, she says, she took home maps to study at night so she'd know where all the streets were so she could send police officers to the correct locations.

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For the past 40 years, Bauer has been the executive coordinator with the village, working with elected officials as well as Lombard residents.

One of the favorite parts of her job is to coordinate the village's five blood drives a year. She says she's proud that during the past 20 years, since she's had that coordinator's job, the village has collected nearly 12,000 units of blood.

Carol Bauer says she loves her behind-the-scenes job and has no plans to retire any time soon. But she does have outside interests too, including gardening and antiquing.

She says she has no plans to retire.

"I love it. I love being in this mix. I love being with the village people, as I say. I cannot imagine not being here," she says.

She says she still lives in Lombard in the same house where she grew up.

There'll be a reception in Carol Bauer's honor tomorrow night before the Lombard village board meeting.

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