Yes, we'll have no burnerners

Claudine Lives!  This is joyous news (to someone, probably, somewhere), and I'm not pretending this little old blog has any impact. but, just like entering the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes, eventually, with enough patience, and four-to-six weeks handling, you too will learn you are not a winner.

So the message was friendly, but the path moving forward will be along the staff training route rather than the providing free burner phones to needy patrons/folks who wander in off the street/hoboes wanting to wish mum a Happy Mother's Day route.

So now I've got this boxful of $5 burners and no place to call.  Anybody wanna prank Wendy's HQ in Dublin, Ohio?

Warning:  Phone may be subject to derisive laughter

My response follows:

Claudine - Thanks for the response. The problem is, on Sunday in particular in the wintertime, Crossroads or Crisis Advocates are unavailable. Crossroads is simply closed, Crisis Advocates is on a "call line" which goes through the local police department non-emergency number. I doubt very much if I am going to start a nonprofit solely to provide free long-distance calls to people who find themselves in need on Sunday in Estes Park, and would rather it be made available through an institution or organization already in place (like a church, imagine a church not being able to help on a Sunday).

I will attempt to offer the police department free phones and phone cards, but the problem there is, if the individual is skittish about the police, they are unlikely to approach the police department asking for help in making a long distance call. Once the police do get involved (as they apparently did in this case (and will probably always have to do if concerned individuals want to try to somehow offer help on a Sunday) by going to Twin Owls, where Crisis Advocates had provided this individual a motel room), the officers likely to have a bunch of other suggestions/procedures they have to follow that don't involve providing a free long-distance call (until the individual is placed in jail, if the television shows are accurate).

Again, I am not going to make a big deal of this, but I have observed library staff provide free copies to individuals when the individual obviously has mental issues and no money, or is unlikely to have money but has coping strategies/ways of attempting to mask this (like "do you take credit card?"/"I have change out in my car (when it seems unlikely they possess a driver's license, let alone own a car)", etc.), and I have observed library staff give people who are in the library having their taxes done and need to make a (presumably) local call to their bank, workplace, whatever for quick information full use of the library telephone to make and receive these calls. I just think you need to have an overarching policy in place, because the individual in question that needed to make a long-distance phone call that Sunday was a minority, and I am very sensitive, if you haven't noticed yet, that minorities be extended every right enjoyed by non-minorities/people who routinely bathe in town.

I have no idea if I was reading the particular situation right or not on that particular day, but what a disappointment if all this individual really truly needed was to make one long-distance phone call, and suddenly a weekend of frustration and wondering what the future held could have been immediately solved. That is probably a fairy tale I invented for my own benefit, but she wasn't requesting a forklift or three ingredients to complete a cake recipe. You would think Estes Park is a big enough town that someone besides the police could have provided her a free phone call on a Sunday.