 County employees go about their tasks not realizing someone is
trying to talk to them. The reason is that although the caller's
phone is ringing, the phones in some county offices are not.
Missing calls, inability to make long-distance calls, faxes not
working are just some of the communications issues frustrating some
workers in the Logan County Courthouse this week. Some offices
had few problems and others had none.
It began as a great idea to save money on the huge phone bills
that our county government faces. As far back as October of 2005, then-county coordinator Dewey Colter told the buildings and grounds
committee that he had contacted Verizon to assess the county phone
system to see if they could provide better, more reliable and
cheaper long-distance service than the current system handled
through the communications company McLeodUSA.
In the ensuing months, further reports by Colter were that
Verizon was going to send a tech system specialist to look at the
phone service.
In October of 2006, nearly a year later, buildings and grounds
minutes show that Colter had spoken to a replacement technician who
was now in charge of the territory the previous technician covered.
In December 2006 still another Verizon
replacement representative had communicated with Colter. This one
planned on not only looking at long-distance service, but the entire
phone system structure and future demands that may occur.
It was estimated that at a cost of $12,000, new equipment could
combine the Logan County Public Safety Complex and the courthouse and would save
county taxpayers roughly $6,000 to $10,000 a year in phone bills, as
noted by buildings and grounds committee chairman John Stewart.
This information, which took 18 months to gather by Verizon
and then be acted upon by county board officials, then went into
action this past Tuesday. A memo from buildings and grounds was sent
to county personnel that Verizon would be changing over "some" phone
lines in the building.
The problems have frustrated county officials, employees and the
public at large. Officials interviewed did not want to go on record,
but many are definitely miffed at the snafu. Those dealing with the
problems in the courthouse were aggravated.
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The consensus of those interviewed is that there should have been an
explanation of changes and training of personnel before the
switchover.
There also should have been more support available to remedy the
problems. Everyone interviewed agreed that the two Verizon service reps
on the premises were working hard to correct problems phone by phone,
but there was only so much that two individuals could do.
The two service technicians also were called off the job Friday
to help Verizon personnel in the northern part of central Illinois
repair damage from Thursday night's storms in that area.
Thus, no further repairs or corrections will be made at the
courthouse until at least Tuesday.
More than one county employee questioned why Verizon's manpower
would be stretched so thin in technical support.
Sally Litterly, Logan County recorder, felt comfortable going on
the record to praise the efforts of the two Verizon reps.
But, Litterly also had a misgiving about the final result when
the new system does become fully functional. "With the new phone
system, we are forced to go with an automated answering system, and I
don't like that," she said. "I prefer the personal touch of our
answering the phone when people call."
JoAnne Marlin, administrative secretary to the county board,
mentioned that communication problems couldn't come at a worse time,
what with people coming in to pay taxes and a lot of court cases
coming up next week. "Phones are really busy then," she said.
One county official, with a touch of humor, let the entire
situation be placed in its simplest terms: "If they gave me a paper
cup tied to a string and it worked, I would be satisfied."
[LDN staff]
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