Acadia debuts new phone system

ACADIA NATIONAL PARK – “Welcome to Acadia National Park” is the recorded greeting callers will now get when they contact the state’s showcase tourist destination.

The national park last Thursday launched a modern phone system allowing callers to access all park offices and divisions by pressing numbers on touch-tone phones.

Boyd McFarland, assistant chief ranger, confirmed Sunday that the new system was offline from Thursday evening through Saturday, “but it’s cleared up now.”

According to McFarland, for the time being callers will be told as soon as they access the system to hang up and call 911 in the event of an emergency. That might change, he said, to allow callers to make direct contact with the ranger’s station during certain hours of the day.

“We’re still discussing exactly how we’re going to do that,” he said.

Emergency 911 calls are channeled to the Bar Harbor Police Department, which has served for years as the central 911 dispatch command center for the park and Mount Desert Island communities – although each community has direct numbers to their separate public safety departments.

Most Acadia visitors in distress already call 911 for help, McFarland said, so the public should not notice a big difference.

Acadia’s new main phone number is 288-3338. Callers can access three main options to get into the system:

. Callers can press option 1 to hear a directory of all staff personnel, although that part of the system is still being completed as employees add their names to the roster.

. Option 2 offers information on camping, fees, transportation, permits, park activities, hours of operation and other general information.

. Option 3 will give callers access to all park offices, including the superintendent’s office, concessions, volunteer programs, purchasing and contracting, among others.

. The final option is to press 0 for the system operator, who works at the park.

“Calls are coming in,” the operator said Sunday afternoon. “Everything’s fine.”

Callers who know a staff member’s extension numbers will be able connect directly to a person’s desk.

The new system also includes voice mail for park staff, a first for Acadia.

The new phone system is part of the administration’s effort to upgrade and improve the park’s infrastructure. Park planners had budgeted $90,000 for the new system, although McFarland was unsure what Acadia ultimately paid for the system.

Acadia officials won approval five years ago to retain 80 percent of all the fees generated at the national park to improve facilities and infrastructure, including the new phone system, rather than having to send 80 percent of the revenue to the National Park Service in Washington, D.C.

Other projects already accomplished or planned under the Acadia fee program include annual financing for the Island Explorer bus system, rehabilitation of historic hiking trails, repairs to visitor centers and construction of a new entrance station at Sand Beach.