County will streamline office phones Jan. 1

MARENGO — Iowa County is installing a new phone system for the courthouse, the annex and other county offices.

“It doesn’t have anything to do with 911,” said Emergency Management Coordinator Josh Humphrey. But residents calling any county office will use a single number starting Jan. 1.

The county has been using the same phone system for about 15 years, said Humphrey, and that system tapped into technology from the 1980s. The county is updating its phones, and the new technology is incompatible with the old, he said.

In the current system, each office has its own number. In analog, every number is associated with a copper phone line, said Humphrey.

With IP internet phones, “You don’t actually have to have a number assigned to an actual phone line,” he said. One number works for all offices.

Beginning Jan. 1, all offices can be reached at 319-642-3923. Callers will choose specific offices from a menu at that number.

The Clerk of Court’s office will continue to use its current number and will use Mediacom as a phone provider, said Humphrey. The rest of the county will move to Wire Tap LLC, which the Sheriff’s Office has been using since July.

“We have a tip line phone system that we’ve been on with them for a year maybe now,” Humphrey told County Supervisors last month. That number was set up for a special event, he said.

Tip lines are set up for specific incidents, as when someone goes missing, said Humphrey. Law enforcement doesn’t want that call volume going through the dispatch center.

Mainstay Systems of Iowa, the county’s information technology vendor, recommended it, Humphrey said.

The sheriff’s office is using the same company for its phone lines, said Humphrey. “Anything that was unpublished, we got rid of.”

The county is saving about $120 a month by switching the Sheriff’s Office phones, Humphrey said.

Before fiber, T1 was the fastest service available, said Humphrey. With fiber-optic lines, a primary rate interface is needed to allow analog calls.

But PRI is not compatible with the new system, Humphrey told county supervisors last month.

Humphrey suggested that supervisors discontinue most of the 26 phone numbers. The courthouse could use one phone number and route calls through the computer.

Fax lines would not change, Humphrey said.

Each of the analog lines has a charge attached to it, said Humphrey. Maintenance Director Dylan Healey told Humphrey that he pays between $400 and $600 a month to Mediacom for phone service, Humphrey said.

The county pays another $350 a month to to Gorden Flesch Company for phone maintenance. “That would disappear,” Humphrey told the county board.

The new system would cost $200 a month. It can handle 32 calls at one time and would allow the county to track phone traffic.

The county would have a little cost for forwarding calls and a little up-front money to install the system, said Humphrey.

The Clerk of Court’s Office, a state office, wants to keep its phone system, said Humphrey, and offered to pay for it. Mediacom would remain the vendor for that office and the six phone numbers would become the responsibility of the State.

Supervisors agreed to Humphrey’s proposal.

“We’ve got to get up to date,” said Supervisor Alan Schumacher.

And the county needs to save money, Supervisor Abigail Maas said.