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VIDALIA, La. — For a strange smell in the air, a power outage, or any other non-life-or-death emergency, who are you going to call? Not the Ghostbusters — at least not in Vidalia.

For pretty much any emergency — except maybe supernatural ones — Town of Vidalia officials have officially launched a new call center to get the job done.

The new Vidalia Cooperative Communications System number is 318-414-1860.

With this number, residents can report issues such as gas leaks, water leaks, power outages, unusual air quality and more — even if it’s after normal business hours.

The communications system cuts back on call volume to 911 while also streamlining record-keeping.

In the case of natural disasters, when the time comes to apply for disaster relief from agencies such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Vidalia is one step ahead, said Dustin Hinkle, who is the director of media and communications for the Town of Vidalia.

Hinkle gave a presentation on this system at the May Board of Aldermen meeting ahead of its official launch in early June.

A live person from a call center will answer the phone at any hour of the day, gather all the information, and get it to the right person who is on call for the job.

For non-emergencies, such as accounts and billing issues, those calls are documented and directed to the appropriate staff member during normal working hours.

Additionally, the town can send out alerts through the system to keep residents informed, he said. Residents can send photos of an issue and verbally tell the on-call worker what is going on, all while creating a digital record of the problem that staff can see in real time and that never gets deleted.

A benefit of that is, when it comes time for the town to apply for grants for natural disaster relief, those detailed records are invaluable.

The person reporting the issue can also remain part of the process going forward and receive updates on the issue through its resolution, even if the issue is handed off to another person on staff, Hinkle said.

To sign up for these alerts, visit vidalia-la.notify.daupler.com/auth.

Current utility clients that have their mobile number on file will automatically be included in notifications, Hinkle said, adding that once they receive a notification, they can choose to opt out if they do not want to receive these types of updates.