COUNTY PHONE BILL TOTALS $48,000

JACKSON, Mo. -- Cape Girardeau County hasn't paid a phone bill for five or six months, leaving it with charges totaling about $48,000.

But county officials say the bill seems excessive, and they won't pay until the charges are straightened out.

The problems date back to last fall when Square One Electronics of Cape Girardeau installed a new telephone system for the county at a cost of more than $200,000.

County Auditor H. Weldon Macke said the county hasn't paid its Southwestern Bell phone bill since at least October.

Gary Slabaugh of Square One Electronics told county commissioners Thursday that some of the charges may date back to September.

But Slabaugh, who has reviewed the phone bills, said Southwestern Bill appears to have charged the county for both the new phone service and for some of the old phone service, which hasn't been disconnected yet.

Slabaugh said some of the billing charges are "erroneous" and there appear to be instances of dual billing too.

The county's Jackson and Cape Girardeau offices have been wired over the years with about 80 telephone lines for everything from phones to fax machines and computer modems.

Slabaugh said Southwestern Bill charged the county more than $4,400 for installations associated with the new telephone system.

With the new telephone system, the county's regular monthly phone bill should total about $3,500 a month, Slabaugh said. The cost includes more than $1,800 in charges for phone services at the county offices in Jackson and more than $1,600 in charges for phone services in the Cape Girardeau offices.

Slabaugh said the monthly cost will be slightly higher than with the old phone system. But he said the new system allows for better communication during emergencies and the routing of calls through either Cape Girardeau or Jackson offices. The phone system also has caller I.D.

Slabaugh told commissioners he has spoken to Southwestern Bell officials about the billing problems. An internal reorganization within the giant telecommunications firm has delayed efforts to get the situation resolved, he said.

Fighting a marshmallow'

"It's like fighting a marshmallow," said Slabaugh, who said he and his staff have spent more than 200 hours trying to straighten out the billing.

The county hasn't paid its phone bill because of all the confusion over charges, officials said.

"When all this gets squared away, we have to figure out how much to send," said Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones.

Slabaugh said it could take several months before the billing problems are straightened out.

Marsha Haskell, the new regional director for external affairs for Southwestern Bill in Cape Girardeau, said later in the day that she can't discuss confidential customer records.

But in a telephone interview, Haskell said Slabaugh, an authorized sales representative for Southwestern Bell, has inventoried the working telephone numbers in county offices.

Haskell said Bell must make sure that the billing reflects any changes from the old telephone system to the new one.

"I am hopeful this will be resolved just as quickly as possible," Haskell said.