THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 27, 1996 TAG: 9603270406
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MAC DANIEL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
Is it 547 or 436?
Determining the correct telephone prefix is a perplexing problem for Chesapeake residents trying to call City Hall.
The current system uses both 547 and 436.
Guess wrong, and you're likely to reach a private home or business instead of a bureaucrat.
The prefixes even confuse the people who work at the municipal complex, who sometimes wind up giving the public the wrong number.
To end the confusion, city officials are planning to switch all city phones over to one, new prefix - 382.
The change would come this July when the region also moves to a new area code - from 804 to 757.
The proposed swap will only affect the three-digit prefix. The remaining four-digits will remain the same.
The new exchange is being reserved for the city by the local phone company GTE, which services much of Chesapeake.
But city officials need to approve the change by April 1 to get it in GTE's new phone books.
The new 382 prefix should serve the city for the next 30 years, city officials said.
It will also eliminate the need for a confusing third prefix, which would have been the only solution for new numbers when the current reserves run out in five to 10 years, said Perry R. Rogis, the city's chief of staff.
KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE CITY HALL TELEPHONE by CNB