LEWISTON – Callers will be eased into a new City Hall telephone system slowly, city officials said Wednesday.

The city turned the switch on a Voice Over IP phone system at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, giving all City Hall employees new telephone handsets and new phone numbers. But those new numbers were not answering at close of business Wednesday.

The city will continue taking phone calls at the old number, 784-2951, during the transition.

“That could continue for up to a year,” said Budget and Purchasing Director Norm Beauparlant.

But Beauparlant said the 784 number will be phased out, in favor of new 513 exchanges. The new main number will be 513-3000, but each City Hall department will get its own individual phone number.

“You’ll still be able to call the main number and reach whomever you want, but you will have the option of dialing them directly if you know the number,” Beauparlant said.

The new system will also let employees transfer callers to other departments without having to hang up. Alan Ward, senior staff accountant for the city, said City Hall is being turned on first. They will put the Public Works and Public Service departments on the system next week, the Police Department on Oct. 11 and Fire Department and the library on the system on Oct. 18.

The city will also be connected to Auburn departments.

“So if someone calls and gets the wrong department or the wrong city, we can transfer them directly,” Beauparlant said. “We don’t have to give them another number to call.”

The City Council approved upgrades to the city’s phone system in the 2007-08 capital improvements plan. It uses Voice over IP, a computer protocol that uses fewer lines to connect more telephones more quickly. It will also let the city create direct dialing extensions, letting people dial city departments directly instead of going through a central switchboard.

The conversion is costing the city roughly $270,000 for new handsets and the computers and software to run the system.

The Lewiston system will rely on the Auburn system if there is a computer failure – and vice versa. Auburn switched to a Voice over IP system when municipal offices moved to Auburn Hall. That included adding a backup phone system in the Auburn Public Library.