By DAVE HAMRICK
dhamrick@thecitizennews.com

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.