News Briefs

Pregnancy Center planning banquet

The Lighthouse Pregnancy Center has begun planning its annual fundraising banquet, which will be held early this spring.
The banquet committee is looking for volunteers to help put together this event. Anyone interested in helping with this project should call the center, 283-8750.
The next banquet planning meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. next Tuesday at the center, which is located at 1121 N. Sixth St. in Vandalia.

VPD to begin using new radio system

Sometime next week, the Vandalia Police Department will begin using the Starcom 21 system for radio communications.
The department received the radio system through a grant offered by the federal Department of Homeland Security. The value of the grant was about $40,000.
The reason for the switch, according to Police Chief Larry Eason, is that Starcom 21 is a digital system. The current, frequency-based system will be discontinued by the FCC over the next two years.
Residents of Vandalia who use scanners to monitor police radio traffic will notice that their scanners will not pick up VPD traffic after the switch is made.