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A new phone system at Lewiston City Hall

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19T E 402730 N 4883147

Large and impressive, the Lewiston City Hall is a building that a great many cities would be proud to call their own. Nov 23, 1982

When the city of Lewiston lost its city hall to a fire in 1890, it quickly got to work on a new building, one which they felt would be suited to its stature as an important industrial and manufacturing centre. Lewiston had, by the 1890s, become the seventh largest manufacturing centre in New England and the city was desirous of a city hall commensurate with its standing in the economic world. In truth, Lewiston had just lost an even grander building in the 1890 fire. "L" shaped in plan, the original city hall was 165 by 180 feet with a spire rising 200 feet above ground level. The building had 80 rooms and included the police department and prison in the basement with the library and post office on the main floor, while its main gallery could seat 2,272.

Nearly 100 years later inevitable technology updates were ongoing, as they always will be, with the installation of a $45,000 state of the art telephone system in city hall and the police department. The beginning of a short news story on the installation, published in the Lewiston Journal on November 23, 1982, follows. Given the tremendous advances in communications technology since that time, it's a good bet that the 1982 phone system is long gone, either recycled or buried in a landfill.

A new phone system at Lewiston City Hall

If you telephone someone working at Lewiston City Hall or the police station tomorrow and thereafter, you'll probably have an easier time getting through to the right department. The city has purchased a new Mital Superswitch telephone system which makes considerably more extensions and such features as call forwarding and conference calls possible.

That new system, which costs $45,555, is being paid for with federal General Revenue Sharing monies, and is being installed by Atlantic Telecommunications of Cumberland. The number of trunk lines leading into City Hall and the police station haven't been increased, with ten feeding Into City Hall and five into police headquarters.

So, the City Hall switchboard operator and Police Department dispatcher will still be able to handle only a limited number of calls that come in during peak periods, but, once a caller has reached the City Hall switchboard operator, his chances will be better for getting through to a particular department and not being put on hold, because there may be three or four department lines, instead of two.

According to purchasing agent Norman Beaupariant the new system will pay for itself in a couple of years.
From The Lewiston Journal