Floyd County Courthouse has new general phone number: 257-6129

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

A general purpose phone number for the Floyd County courthouse will now lead to an automated system offering callers the choice of departments to be directed to.

The Board of Supervisors discussed the idea at a workshop session Monday morning, where the board members generally agreed it was a good idea. No formal action – which is not allowed at a workshop meeting – was required to make the change, the board members agreed.

County Auditor Gloria Carr said the current system where every department and every desk within the department has its own number can become frustrating for county employees because frequently people will call the wrong department and need to be redirected.

Supervisor Chairman Roy Schwickerath said he talked with county IT Director Bernie Solomon about using the functions already built into the county’s phone system to set up an automated directory.

The system will use the Board of Supervisors number, 641-257-6129, as the courthouse “general number” that anyone can call to be quickly connected to the correct department.

Schwickerath said other departments didn’t want to give up any of their numbers because some people do know the direct numbers to call and they want to remain reachable at those numbers.

The supervisors’ number is seldom used because the board members don’t keep regular office hours and mostly use their cellphones for communications, Swickerath said.

Anyone who calls 257-6129 will now get an automated directory offering the choices of departments to contact.

The Treasurer’s Office, which is typically the busiest office, dealing with property taxes, vehicle titles and registration and drivers licenses, will be option 1. The Clerk of Court Office, usually the second busiest, will be option 2, and then the county departments will be listed in roughly alphabetical order.

In a symbolic gesture, the Department of Veterans Affairs will be able to be reached by pressing the star key.

Effective now, here is the directory number for each county department to press after calling 257-6129:

• 1- Treasurer’s Office.
• 2 – Clerk of Court.
• 3 – Assessor’s Office.
• 4 – County Attorney.
• 5 – Auditor’s Office.
• 6 – Board of Health, Emergency Management or Zoning.
• 7 – Engineering.
• 8 – County Jail.
• 9 – Sheriff’s Office.
• 0 – Recorder’s Office.
• * – Veterans Affairs.
• # – Supervisors.

Also at the meeting Monday morning, the supervisors discussed COVID-19 policies and trends, as they do at almost every meeting now.

Schwickerath said he would like all visitors to the courthouse to wear facemasks, but it is not a requirement.

“I think our department heads are comfortable,” he said. “Each department does control their own office, and if they want to require a facemask upon entering their office they have the ability to do that.”

He said the advantage of having a courthouse-wide policy requiring masks would be that individual departments could say it was the supervisors’ decision, but even then individual elected officials could decide to not enforce it in their own offices.