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Show Bomatiftal Decides To Buy ; Its Own Telephone System But lacking will be the familiar famil-iar voice: "Good morning, Bountiful City Hall." By GARY R. BLODGETT BOUNTIFUL -- The city council has approved replacement replace-ment of Bountiful's "antiqu-!ed" "antiqu-!ed" telephone system at a cost of nearly $75,000. THE COUNCIL unanimous-' unanimous-' ly approved the replacement of ' the telephone system in City Hall which will also serve all Ik city departments, including includ-ing the police and fire departments, depart-ments, according to City Reader Re-ader Arden Jenson. He said there were 15 invitations invita-tions sent forthe installation of telephone system. Eight qualified bids were received Salt Lake Telephone i wmpany being low bidder for i IN ADDITION, the council approved $2,000 each, a total of $4,000, for installation of two battery-powered "backup systems" to be used by the city's ci-ty's police and fire departments. depart-ments. "The city telephone system is very inadequate, you might say even antiquated compared to other cities and telephone systems that are on the market today," Mr. Jenson told the council. "THE PRESENT system is such that it is becoming too costly to maintain and it simply can not do the job that the new systems are capable of doing. " He said the proposed system sys-tem will have automatic switching devices and most of the city offices can be dialed direct. "THE NEW system will eliminate eli-minate the switchboard and will necessitate educating and retraining of city personnel in answering the telephone and directing stray calls," the city recorder noted. "All calls can easily be transferred if an incorrect in-correct office is reached by the caller." Mr. Jenson also stressed the necessity of having the system installed immediately so that new telephone numbers can be printed in the South Davis Telephone Directory which will be printed in December and delivered before the first of the year. "WE'RE GOING to have to do a good job of educating and publicizing the new system but once the kinks are worked out we should have a much improved im-proved telephone system for all city departments," he said. Installation is expected to begin soon and parts and labor will be warranted for five years. THE SYSTEM will be purchased pur-chased on a lease-purchase agreement that will save the city about $1,000 a month, the city recorder explained. He said other cities have been serviced with the same, or similar telephone systems with good success. However, there are several different types of equipment and services ser-vices available. RECOMMENDATION for a new telephone system was reached after an independent consultant made a thorough study of the existing system and the potential of a new system. Mr. Jenson said there has been some concern from the police and fire departments that emergency calls may "be lost" during a power outage. However, the battery-powered battery-powered "backup" systems will eliminate this concern, the council agreed. THIS BACKUP system could also be used by the Civil Defense in the event of an area-wide blackout. Also, the city has its own diesel-fuel generator that can be used as a backup unit, according to City Manager Tom Hardy. "This generator can be cranked up and in service within with-in five to eight minutes and can be used as an alternative system sys-tem to the regular and battery-powered battery-powered systems." the city manager told the council. MR. JENSON stressed that the proposed telephone system sys-tem will have several advantages advan-tages over the present system. |