New cybersecurity requirements leading to a phone system change for the town of Byrdstown.
And a new phone number to connect with town departments.
Mayor Sam Gibson said new state rules require municipalities to have safeguards to protect itself and resident data.
“Our customers here in Pickett County, the biggest gains for them will be that we’ll have a different phone number, a toll-free number, which is different than our regular number,” Gibson said. “And that one number will ring all of our departments that we have, sewer plant, water plant, the main office here. So, it’ll ring in, and then people will have to choose one, two, three, whatever in order to get to those other departments that they’re trying to reach. But instead of having three numbers, there’ll only be one number.”
Gibson said the town hopes to be on the new phone system by May 16. The new phone number is (833) 901-4124. Option one will allow the caller to reach Town Hall.
The new technology bundle will also allow Byrdstown residents to pay for services using credit cards.
“We’re one of the few people probably in the Upper Cumberland area that we don’t accept credit cards at this time,” Gibson said. “And we’ve been talking about that for years, about we need to do that. Do we put a charge on the people or not? How do we do it? We don’t want to charge everyone because a few people have to use a credit card. And so, this is also included in this bundle.”
United Systems is working with the town on the new phone system. Gibson said in addition, they are assisting with the cybersecurity, billing, ledgers, and other systems.
“We’re able to bundle all of that into one thing, and that’s going to be wonderful for the people,” Gibson said.
Gibson said town leaders are working hard to get the “new phone number” message out through as many channels as possible before the May launch.
“We’re going to do whatever we can to try to get that number out and available to people,” Gibson said. “We sure don’t want to make it hard for people to contact town hall or the water plan or sewer plan if they’re needing to reach them.”
The post Byrdstown Residents Soon Have A New Number To Phone Town appeared first on News Talk 94.1/AM 1600.