Be patient if you call Freeborn County Environmental Services. You might have to wait more than 15 rings to leave a message, but wait only fifteen minutes to get a call back.

The environmental services department moved from the courthouse to the county fairgrounds a few weeks ago, and they went from having two numbers and five lines to just two lines.

It’s another inconvenience caused by the construction of the courthouse.

Director Randy Tuchtenhagen said it means that if two people are using the phones, any other callers will hit the voice mail. And since some people don’t like voice mail, and since right now is the busy season for the department, a lot of people are getting frustrated and not getting in contact with them.

&uot;They might not want to leave a message because they don’t know when we might get back to them,&uot; he said.

This time of year is busy for environmental services because builders are completing outdoor work like pouring footings and installing septic tanks before the winter, and the need for inspections is large.

He said it’s frustrating to some people who can’t go forward with plans until an inspector comes by. Not being able to contact his department right away aggravates the problem.

Some people complain. &uot;If they express displeasure, you know it’s a big deal, otherwise they wouldn’t say anything,&uot; Tuchtenhagen said.

He said that sometime his employees will hear three people calling during one phone call, but they can’t always put people on hold to answer the other calls, so people get routed to voice mail. Wednesday, they reprogrammed the phones so that calls are routed to another line, increasing the amount of rings, but also the chance of avoiding voice mail.

Tuchtenhagen asked people to be patient and know that their messages should be returned within 15 minutes.

(Contact Tim Sturrock at tim.sturrock @albertleatribune.com or 379-3438.)