Pay Phones? They’re Still There Vernon Hills Park District Using New Firm to Keep Service

By Mick Zawislak Daily Herald Staff Writer

Confined to a small area, tethered by a cable and sometimes requiring coins, there would appear to be no reason for pay phones in a cellular world.

True, the numbers are falling fast. But pay phones have not disappeared, nor are they likely to, even though use is virtually nil in some locations.

“There’s still plenty of people that use them, but you have to look a little harder to find them,” said Andy Majernik, president of Innovative Businesses and Services Inc.

The Glendale Heights firm, which has been in business since 1991, operates in 11 states. Its biggest market is the Chicago area, and it tries to entices new customers with lower prices and options.

“I don’t see this market drying up any time in the near future,” Majernik said.

One of Innovative’s newest customers is the Vernon Hills Park District, which switched providers for a three-year contract for 10 pay phones in various locations.

While many park districts have been phasing out or removing pay phones, Vernon Hills is the target customer for companies like Innovative.

“We were kind of reluctant to pull the phones out,” explained Marla Pineiro, superintendent of finance and human resources. “We feel we’re providing an emergency service.”

For years, Vernon Hills contracted with SBC, most recently for $50 per phone per month. Faced with an increase to $75 per month per phone, the district had a dilemma.

“With those increased costs, we’d be spending well over $10,000 per year in pay phones,” she said.

And for what? The usage is virtually nonexistent. The highest average use per day of the 10 phones is $1.17, and the lowest is one cent.

The district considered some other type of emergency communication in the parks but found it has a hefty start-up cost. Pineiro heard about Innovative through a network of finance officials.

She was surprised to learn not only that there were other providers but that the price was lower than the current contract. Innovative will charge $45 per month per phone and offer a free service allowing park patrons to connect to other district facilities by dialing a few numbers.

“For us, it’s a matter of programming it and putting a different label on the phone,” said Majernik. “We are independent, so we can customize it to the customer.”

He estimated that in the early 1990s, about 300 independent providers operated in Illinois. About a dozen independents remain active in the Chicago area, Majernik estimated.

Cellular use continues to jump. There were 208 million U.S. wireless subscribers (69 percent of the population) at the end of 2005, according to the Cellular Communications and Internet Association, compared with 148 million less than three years ago.

On the other hand, the Buffalo Grove-based Illinois Public Telecommunications Association says pay phones in Illinois dropped from about 100,000 in 2001 to 60,000 in 2003, the most recent numbers available.

That precipitous drop has made the decision for public agencies and others easier. In the old days, they would get a cut of the proceeds. Since that has declined, it becomes an expense for most entities.

“Pay phones actually used to be a revenue source,” said Mike Tully, director of operations for the Lake County forest preserves. “We’ve removed quite a few of them over the years for lack of use.”

The district maintains six pay phones at the more popular and highly visited preserves.

The Northbrook park district hasn’t had a pay phone installed since 2000. “We had 10 of them or more. We just decided we would take them out as they came up for contract,” said Ken Eppelheimer, assistant executive director.

Last year, the life of one youth may have been saved by a man with a cell phone walking his dog. The man happened to have a cell phone, Eppelheimer said. The youth had gone over the handlebars of his bike and sliced an artery in his leg.

Still, not everyone has a cell phone. Reception can also be a problem, or it may need a charge and be unusable. Outfitting several kids with cell phones may be prohibitively expensive for other families.

So, Vernon Hills park patrons still will have the pay phone option.

“We’re only keeping them in as a safety feature,” Pineiro said. “It’s just one of those things. You don’t want to take a gamble.”

mzawislak@@dailyherald.com

(c) 2006 Daily Herald; Arlington Heights, Ill.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.