NORWALK -- A phone system outage last week has left the city government's phone lines only about 95 percent operational.

"I'm still getting screwy calls, and our answering machines aren't working right," City Safety/Service Director Gary Butkus said. Other problems include a fax machine whose phone line will not work.

Butkus said that a repairman, who worked with the phone system during its three-hour outage, told him the average life expectancy for a modern phone system is about 10 years. He said that the phone system, which dates back to the 1986-1987 era, is well beyond its life expectancy and should be replaced.

The problems last week could have been caused by an electrical surge, Butkus said, and getting the right parts to fix it could take a long time.

The city will ask city council Tuesday for $30,000 to install a new system, and is shopping for the best deal. The new system will include phones for the park and recreation department, the Ernsthausen Aquatic Center, the water department and the wastewater department.

"If the system goes down we are concerned with the timeliness of repair," Butkus said. "Without phone service, we're pretty much dead in the water as far as contact with the public goes."

The city still can contact the police and fire departments with its four or five cell phones, Butkus said.

He added fire and police have replaced their phones, with a new system, and thinks the city's problem will be taken care of by end of summer

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-- Doris (reaper1@mindspring.com), June 27, 2000