The Enterprise - White Salmon, Washington

Skamania County Community Development discontinues phone tree

Several departments combine

January 15, 2013

Beginning Jan. 2, calls placed to the Skamania County Community Development main phone line (427-3900) will be met with a live person.

This change comes after a year of experimenting with a "Phone Tree" system where callers would select the division they wished to speak to by pressing a number as directed. Once transferred to the correct division, they would be asked to leave a message. They also had the option to leave a message on the main Community Development phone line.

Voicemail messages were checked multiple times daily, and were delivered to staff email inboxes and returned within two business days.

Callers will now reach a live staff person, who will either answer the question, or take a message for the proper staff person to answer. Staff has one business day to return the call.

When calling the Community Development number, and if the staff person who answers cannot answer the question and must take a message, callers will be asked to leave a detailed message including their name, contact information, parcel number in question, and file number, if applicable.

This will help staff in researching the answers to the questions, rather than making several calls to obtain the requested information.

The Building Division line (427-3920) will be forwarded to the main 3900 line, and will be phased out by March 30. Building, Planning, and Environmental Health staff are all part of the Community Development Department and are no longer recognized as separate divisions.