You

may soon notice a difference in how your phone

calls to various Fayette County agencies are

handled.

If

all goes according to plan, the changes should

improve the service you receive while actually

reducing its cost, according to county officials.

For

instance, if you call the county's main number,

770-460-5730, and ask for the Public Works

Department, currently you're told that you have

to hang up and call a different number.

With

new equipment to be installed sometime in late

February or early March, operators at the main

number will be able to transfer your call

directly to Public Works, which is housed in the

county's McDonough Road annex, without your

having to hang up and call a different number.

The

catch is that calls to all county offices will

require using a four-digit extension number,

instead of the current three-digit extension. But

if you have a current listing of departmental

phone numbers, you need only add the same digit,

such as "5," to any of the current

extension numbers to reach the party you want.

An

automated system also will be in place for county

workers who are frequently in the field and

unavailable in the office. Your message on that

person's answering machine will ring his or her

pager, so that important calls can be handled

right away.

Workers

at the county Animal Shelter on Ga. Highway 74

south are particularly happy about that, said Jay

Wright, director of information services. One

- sometimes two - animal control

workers currently must stay in the office to man

the phones, mostly answering simple questions,

when they need to be taking care of animals and

dealing with strays, he said.

New

equipment will now not only answer the calls and

page the workers if needed, but also will contain

prerecorded answers to most often asked

questions, freeing workers for their other

duties.

And

because of new technology and increased

competition in the marketplace, the changes will

reduce the county's cost for telephones by

$64,000 a year, while the initial setup will cost

only about $30,000, said Wright.

Wright

worked out the details of the changes with

BellSouth during meetings with the communications

company prompted by a request from the Animal

Shelter.

"The

Animal Shelter has a lot of callers who are

seeking information, but don't necessarily need

to talk to an individual," he told county

commissioners during their meeting last week. His

department already was working to find solutions

to similar problems for the Parks and Recreation

Department, Wright said.

Remarking

on a recent report that showed Fayette County's

per capita government costs to be among the

lowest in the state, county manager Billy Beckett

praised Wright for the creative solution.

"This

is one example of why you are able to do what you

are able to do" in saving taxpayer money,

Beckett told the commissioners.

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