As hundreds of cyclists poured through the Summit City, there was hope that the event would not only bring some exercise and entertainment to the participants but hopefully a changed view of the community in general.FORT WAYNE – Fort Wayne will spend nearly $1.2 million to install an Internet-based phone system at its new government building.
The City Council on Tuesday unanimously supported paying the expense to G3 Technology Partners for new phones and servers to be used in 200 E. Berry St. when city and county offices move there in the spring.
Jim Haley, city information director, said the phones will replace the current phone system with Frontier that was installed in the mid-1990s. He said the conversion will allow the city and county to save money over time as the annual operating costs will be about half of what the governments are paying.
Haley said the city and county now pay about $900,000 combined on their phone systems annually, but that cost will be trimmed to $500,000 with the new system. He said the county is expected to replace the phone system in the City-County Building with the new Internet-based system as well. The Allen County Council will discuss a separate $1.2 million expense for phones on Thursday.
The money for the phones is not in the city’s 2011 operating budget. Controller Pat Roller said the city will have to come before the council again to appropriate the money if savings can’t be found in the existing budget. She said it’s likely the city will need the extra money for the expense.
Haley said the city is working to ensure there are several backups in the new phone system to avoid service problems when it switches to Internet-based phone service. He said the system to be installed is currently being used by the City Utilities call center and the city has had a few years to get used to the product.
Besides saving money, he said it will provide more features such as tracking incoming and outgoing calls, recording phone conversations and linking with mobile phones or computers.
Pedestrian plan OK’d
The council also unanimously approved the Walk Fort Wayne plan. The plan outlines areas of the city in need of pedestrian infrastructure and ways to start attacking those problems.
It also stresses the “complete streets” concept to have pedestrian and bicycle usage included in regular street projects instead of being an afterthought.
Councilmen Tim Pape, D-5th, and Glynn Hines, D-6th, recommended the city discuss future projects with council members before choosing them to ensure the city’s money is spent most productively.
