The Chilton County Courthouse will soon have technological benefits that have not been utilized in more than 14 years.

A new telephone system will be installed at the courthouse and other county buildings or locations in the next couple of months and should be functioning by August or September.

The Chilton County Commission approved the purchase of the phones during the regularly scheduled meeting on Monday after hearing reports from Jim Johnson and Kemp Delo from Net Access Solutions—a Birmingham based company.

Johnson and Delo presented a proposal to commissioners to install roughly 75 phones for the county with benefits of voicemail, voicemail to email and the capability of being able to forward an extension to a mobile device.

Currently, the phone system at the courthouse and other county buildings did not have voicemail capabilities and have been outdated for many years.

County administrator Connie Powell said one of the benefits of the new phone system would allow forwarding capabilities to county employees who use a mobile device such as county litter agent Libby Ratliff.

“The telephone sets we have now in the courthouse are obsolete,” Powell said. “They are very out of date.”

Minooka Park manager Gerald Arrington said one way the new telephone system will benefit the park is allowing him to have a directory listing.

“In the past, people have not been able to get our phone number by calling information and I know this has frustrated some people,” Arrington said. “I also think the new phones will have additional options for voicemail that will be beneficial to the park.”

Another benefit to the new system will allow faster Internet services to the Chilton County Road Department due to the ability to link the road department with the Internet connection at the courthouse.

Commission chairman Allen Caton said during the meeting on Monday that the new phone system would eliminate continuing issues with the current phone system.

“We have a lot of trouble with our current phone system merely because it is out of date,” Caton said.

Commissioners unanimously voted for the new system to be installed at a cost of about $10,000 which will be taken out of the Capital Improvement Fund.

Johnson and Delo told commissioners the new telephone system will help save roughly $5,000 a month from the current telephone system.