By Sam Spiewak

Two weeks ago, Tomales became a town without a public phone.

West Marin, like other parts of the country, is losing its payphones. In the last five years, the number of payphones nationwide has decreased by half, according to the FCC. At the heart of the issue are the cell phones and Internet phones that cut into payphone profits. Payphones made $2.2 billion in profit in 1999, but $1 billion last year. The decline has prompted AT&T to get out of the payphone business in Tomales and other West Marin towns. “You should be getting a letter notifying you soon,” said Mike Benson, AT&T’s Manager of Public Communications. “It’s just not profitable for us.”

West Marin has lost four AT&T payphones recently, according to the county: one in the Point Reyes sheriff substation, one in the San Geronimo Library, one in the Woodacre fire station, and the one in Tomales.

Like other areas of West Marin, the isolated town of Tomales has no reliable cell phone coverage; lost motorists or residents in need of emergency assistance relied instead on the payphone in front of the Tomales Bakery, or on emergency call boxes along the highway.

Convenience phones

Though all payphones look alike, the phone in Tomales was actually a “convenience phone.” A convenience phone is a payphone that doesn’t make a profit and is paid for by a local business owner. Last month, Pacific Telemanegment took over the operation of Tomales’ convenience phone from AT&T and raised the fee from $50 to $75 a month, according to Cameron Ryan, the owner of the Tomales Bakery, who was paying for the phone.

“It just felt like extortion,” she said. Ryan decided not to pay. Arguing that a payphone was essential for public safety, she contacted county supervisors.

“This has been a big challenge for my group,” said Barbara Layton, the county’s telecommunications manager. “Once every month for the last three years, we had a payphone go convenience. When there is no impact to the public we let that phone go.”

That means the availability of convenience phones will now depend on the goodwill of local business people.

“AT&T sent us a letter saying the phone wasn’t profitable, but the owner wanted to keep the phone as a service to the community,” said Teresa Loberg, manager of the West Marin Pharmacy in Point Reyes Station. “He doesn’t make money off of it, but people use the phone to call their doctors out of state to get emergency prescriptions.”

The eventual loss of payphones will impact both visitors and West Marin residents – especially the elderly – who don’t have cell phones or who live in places where coverage is unavailable. Last December, West Marin was offered improved cell phone service, but Verizon Wireless withdrew its application to build an antenna when townspeople who feared cell phone radiation protested.

Even in places where cell phones do work, there is the human factor that creates a need for a public phone: cell phones forgotten on the kitchen counter and batteries that haven’t been recharged.

Public interest phones

Cell phones aren’t the only reason why payphones are disappearing in West Marin. A payphone can be a liability for a small business. To prevent late-night loitering, the Greenbridge Gas Station in Point Reyes Station turns their payphone off after 10 pm, said manager Mark Reano. The gas station earned only $6 from the payphone in the last three months.

“Payphones are horribly vandalized,” said Will Rigney, AT&T’s area manager of external affairs. “We needed to supply armored cables and other expensive forms of protection. People will simply blow the whole thing up.”

All of this has the county wondering how to preserve the public phone.

“It’s not an area that the county has taken responsibility for in the past,” said supervisor Steve Kinsey. “I don’t know if there are other communities that feel as Tomalas does, but if it becomes a systemic problem throughout the county we’ll have to look at who else has an interest.”

“We might ask the Public Utilities Commission to impose greater responsibility in these outlying areas,” said Kinsey, who emphasized that the issue still needs to be studied.

In Oregon, Rep. Herbert Adams, D-Portland, sponsored legislation to preserve or create “public interest payphones” in areas where a lack of phone access poses a risk to residents’ safety, health, or welfare. His bill followed similar bills from Alaska to Indiana. But California has yet to create such a program.

In the case of Tomales, the county decided to assume the $50 cost per month to turn the payphone into convenience phone. Pacific Telemanagment Services will take over that phone and about 20 other convenience phones in the county that were once operated by AT&T.

Convenience phones, however, are usually placed only in county facilities like libraries, schools, and fire stations, so other West Marin towns shouldn’t expect the county to pay for their convenience phones if the need arises.

“We felt it important to support Tomales because of its isolation,” said Layton. “We don’t see doing that all over the county.”