Planner bites off more than he can chew

City police specialist Raylene Heutink’s quick thinking and first-aid training saved a choking co-worker this week. “Terry had a close call this morning,” city manager Gary Tomsic told city council members at their March 28 meeting, with a somewhat sheepish but breathing city community and economic development director Terry Galvin sitting beside him. “Raylene recognized what was going a while others were losing their heads.”

In a jocular report to Tomsic on the incident police sergeant Ryan King wrote that “On March 28, 2005, at approximately 9:53 a.m. Terry Galvin was faced with a crumby situation as he began choking on a piece of toast. A quick thinking police specialist recognized the symptoms of a blocked airway and was able to dislodge the multi-grain culprit using the Heimlich maneuver. Police are still at the crime scene trying to determine if this was an isolated incident or part of a cereal crime.”

When Galvin was asked if, against the advice of his mother, he had been talking with his mouth full, he answered, “I believe I was.”