CARY, NC – Anyone with a touch-tone telephone can now access more than 250 new and improved messages and request more than 30 documents from the Town’s Web site via FAX using the Town of Cary’s upgraded "24-Hour Town Hall" telephone service, an automated telephone message system with information on a variety of topics including services, regulations, and events.

Hear the answers to the most frequently asked questions of Cary government by accessing 24- Hour Town Hall anytime by dialing (919) 319-4500. You may access up to four pre-recorded messages in one call. The same messages are available on TDD by dialing (919) 319-4504.

"Cary has long recognized the importance of providing citizens with timely information in a no-cost, convenient manner," said the Town’s Public Information Officer Susan Moran. "24-Hour Town Hall has become a vital resource, especially for thousands of Cary residents and business owners who don’t have access to the Internet, who are visually impaired or dyslexic, or who are otherwise unable to read."

Over the last eight years, the popularity of Cary’s 24-Hour Town Hall has grown to an average of 6,000 calls coming in every month. That level of usage led the Cary Town Council this past fall to approve moving forward with the $28,450 upgrade of the 1994 DOS based system. The 1994 system could no longer be serviced, and its features were limited given today’s technology and citizen expectations.

In addition to fax on demand, Cary’s new 24-Hour Town Hall system includes multilingual and polling capabilities, both of which will come online over the next few months. The new system also has a call out feature that allows the Town to initiate outbound voice calls to lists of people in the event of an emergency. Call out can quickly alert thousands of internal and external recipients to urgent information such as severe weather conditions, water main breaks, or other safety bulletins. Call out will not be used for marketing or other non-emergency purposes.

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