The message that Cass County Information Systems Director Kerry Collins delivered to the board of commissioners last week came in loud and clear: replace the county phone system, or risk having them fail, without the ability to repair them.

The technology director informed the commissioners about the issues with the communication devices during the board’s last meeting Thursday, held at the county annex building in Cassopolis.

The current system, which controls phones located across five buildings operated by the county, will be at end of life by Dec. 31, meaning that vendors will no longer provide support or replacement parts in the event that the system fails, Collins said.

Should the phone system break down, county buildings would be left without incoming or outgoing telephone service for its 200-plus phones — including those located at the county’s 911 dispatch center, Collins said.

“We either take a chance and hope that we have no failure until we come up with a plan, or we plan ahead of time and replace that system between now and Dec. 31,” he said to the commissioners.

The director has considered several solutions on how to replace the current analog phone system, and is leaning toward the county adopting an on-premises digital system, provided by ShoreTel, he said.

In order to accommodate it or any other digital phone service, the county would need to completely redo the telephone wiring installed at the county annex and sheriff’s office buildings, which was initially installed in 1976 and 1990 respectively, Collins said. The network cabling at the county building will also need to be replaced, he added.

“It doesn’t have the capacity of transmitting the digital signal fast enough,” Collins said.

The director’s proposed solution could cost the county nearly $250,000, with the equipment costing between $125,000 to $135,000 and the cabling work costing between $80,000 and $100,000.

While Collins had planned to make a request for funding for the project, a capital spending freeze, built into the recently passed county budget, prevents any such projects from taking off until January.

“We cannot wait until January to replace the phone systems,” Collins said. “You can wait, but if something breaks, we’re going to have a real big problem.”