[January 13, 2009] Phone numbers first to change for county courthouse Tweet Jan 13, 2009 (The Herald-Sun - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Editor's note: This is the first in an occasional series of stories that will examine pending changes as more county departments move into the new Orange County Courthouse or other county-owned buildings. HILLSBOROUGH -- In the first of many changes that will be taking place soon in the Orange County criminal justice system, the telephone numbers to the courthouse will change this week. As construction workers put the final touches on the new courthouse addition on East Margaret Lane, everyone in the courthouse and the Orange County Sheriff's Office is preparing for the big move. The Sheriff's Office will move from its location down the block to the first floor of the new addition. The court clerks will be moving into the second floor of the new building, and two new courtrooms will be opening in the new building. Eventually the district attorney's office will move to the sheriff's former office, although the district attorney will maintain a few of his old offices just outside the Superior Court courtroom on the bottom level of the current courthouse building. The first thing to change will be the phone numbers of various court offices. The court phone numbers no longer will be tied to the Orange County system. Instead they will be on a separate Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) system, said James Stanford, clerk of the Orange County Courts. The N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts is working on switching all county court systems to VoIP. Because all the Orange County phones are going to be moved anyway, it decided to do Orange County at the same time as the big move, Stanford said. "Everything is totally new. There is no relation to existing numbers," Stanford said. "We've always used the county system, but with the new system, the county can't transfer calls." If people call the main county number, the operator will give them the new number and tell them to hang up and dial it, Stanford said. The main number for the courthouse will be 644-4700. It will have an auto attendant, which is the message that tells people to press certain numbers for various offices. One of the first pieces of information on the message will be the address and directions for how to get to the Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough, Stanford said. Under the current phone system, clerks had to tell people how to get to the courthouse, but Stanford hopes that now the clerks will be spared from repeating that information over and over and over. The number for civil or criminal clerks -- 644-4500 -- also will have an auto attendant with messages to guide callers to civil or criminal court clerks. The new phone numbers go into effect Thursday. The phone numbers for the Chapel Hill Courthouse (967-4523) and the Chapel Hill Magistrate (929-5707) will remain the same. ---------------------------------------------------------- NEW NUMBERS Effective Thursday, all offices within the Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough will have new phone numbers. The new numbers are: Orange County Courthouse: 644-4700 Clerk of Superior Court: 644-4500 Court Reporter: 644-4686 District Attorney: 644-4600 District Court Judges: 644-4646 Superior Court Judges: 644-4747 Magistrate in Hillsborough: 644-4690 To see more of The Herald-Sun, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.herald-sun.com. Copyright (c) 2009, The Herald-Sun, Durham, N.C. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]