Published: May 17, 2009 09:49 pm      

County to upgrade phone system

$92,000 will be repaid in one year through savings from existing bill.

By KEVIN SMITH

PHAROS-TRIBUNE

Cass County government’s outdated phone network is set to be replaced in an upgrade that will ultimately save taxpayers’ money.

Commissioner Dave Arnold presented the proposed system improvements at Friday’s County Council meeting. Arnold told council members that the $92,000 investment for the new system will be paid back in a year through savings.

“Once we get the new phone system set up, we will start saving money,” Arnold said. “It is going to take about a year to pay back, but then we will start saving $95,000 a year. It is going to be a big saving for the county.”

The switch will reduce the county’s Verizon phone bill from $134,813 per year at present to approximately $40,000 in the future. The savings equate to nearly a $1 million over 10 years.

Arnold said that the bill is so high because there are 76 different lines coming into the county building. He said that in order to call the clerks office from his office phone, he has to call an outside line first rather than using an internal network number, which costs the county money.

The upgrade also addresses problems with the voicemail system in the clerks office.

“In the evenings and weekends, people have been trying to record voice messages, but they have not been recorded,” Arnold said. “They have had to unplug the voicemail machine so people won’t be under the false impression that they are leaving messages that will be heard.”

The county received two bids for the phone proposal last month, with the low bid coming from Advance Products Group - New Paris Telecom, a subsidiary of INDigital, a company the county continues to work with on the combined dispatch.

Under the new system, all employees will have an 18-button phone and each of the county’s departments and facilities — from the county building and sheriff’s department, to the highway department, EMA and probation and dispatch center — will all be just three or four digits away. The bid also includes $7,000 in provisions for outside phones and interface modules for the new work release facility.

Council members could not vote to approve the bid on Friday because it has yet to be advertised. If the proposal secures approval at today’s commissioners meeting, it will return to the council in June.

• Kevin Smith is a staff writer at the Pharos-Tribune. He can be reached at (574) 732-5148 or kevin.smith@pharostribune.com