By Mike Chambers
Correspondent
TRENTON, Ga. - Pennies add up.
Trenton city commissioners have decided to save nearly $1,800 a year by doing away with some old-fashioned technology. Over the past month commissioners identified several unused telephone land lines and decided to cancel them.
"Businesses and families are trying to save money," said Chuck Cannon, head of Trenton's parks and recreation department. "I saw a phone bill for the city and said, 'Why do we have these lines?'"
For the most part, city officials and workers communicate by cellular phones.
The city dropped unused land lines in the maintenance and water and sewage departments and an unpublished line in the basement of the police department. Mr. Cannon said each line cost about $50 a month.
BY THE NUMBERS$1,800 a year: Savings by dropping unused landlines$307,350: Overall communications budget$1.5 million: Approximate Trenton city budgetSource: City of Trenton
He admits the move doesn't save a lot out of the overall $307,350 communications budget or the overall $1.5 million city budget.
Still, a saving is a saving, Mr. Cannon said.
"It's not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things, but $150 here and $150 there adds up."
Trenton isn't the only local government to ditch unused telephone lines.
Dade County Executive Ted Rumley said the county dropped about a dozen land lines as part of an overall move to improve efficiency.
He said he figures the local telephone company "isn't very happy with me."