Blawnox officials have signed on to a new messaging system to send emergency alerts and other announcements to residents.
The borough recently switched from Rave Mobile Safety to CivicPlus for mass communications.
Administrators said they were looking for a new system that was more user-friendly and allowed for more targeted messaging as well as borough-wide alerts.
Council approved a 15-month deal for the CivicPlus service in October. Startup costs were about $1,875. Next year’s fee is about $4,000.
CivicPlus has more than 10,000 local government customers, 100,000 public servant users and 340 million resident users, according to the company’s website.
Casey Cunningham, borough tax collector and administrative assistant, was instrumental in implementing the new system.
She said it broadens the borough’s capability to keep the community informed and safe.
“We hope to use the system, in addition to our social media and newsletters, to keep the greater Blawnox area updated about community events, volunteer opportunities, roadwork and construction that may affect travel, and much more,” Cunningham said.
Enrollment is free and open to all, whether you’re a resident, business owner or client, passing through regularly, or checking on a loved one.
“It’s good for a lot of things besides pubic works snow emergencies,” council vice president Randall Stoddard said. “If there was a police emergency, anything that you wanted to alert the public, you could use it for that. School systems have the same type of thing to let parents know if there’s something going on at the schools. Everybody doesn’t look at Facebook every day, but most people will listen to a message on their phone.”
One of the benefits of the new system is being able to tailor messages to specific areas in town.
Borough manager Cory Dennison said that the feature proved useful last month when the first alert on the new system was sent.
“We used the alert system in early November when we had to replace a fire hydrant on Humboldt (Street) and Freeport (Road),” Dennison said. “We were able to send a target alert message the several dozen residents whose homes would be without water for several hours while they replaced the fire hydrant. It was a very successful alert blast and the residents were all happy with the result.
“The public works team did a great job replacing the hydrant, and we were able to send another alert to let them know the work was complete. It was a very successful alert warning and we are happy with the results. We have not had to use the alert system for the entire Borough, but we believe it will be able to keep the residents informed when we do need it.”
Alerts can be sent via email, text, social media and more.
To sign up, subscribers can download the free myAlerts app by Konexus, Inc. from the Google Play or Apple stores.
Users can also go to the borough website, blawnox.com, and click on the “Alerts and Notifications” tab on the main page to find prompts to create an account or opt in via text message.
”We need to push that information out to the residents when they are not around the borough, and even if they are,” council president Debbie Laskey said.
“I truly encourage the residents to sign up. The more information that we can push out to them, the more informed they are. … We needed to bump up our ability to communicate with our folks and it never hurts to do that. It’s a good tool to use and I truly encourage the people of Blawnox to take advantage of that. It’s a good tool to have in your toolbox.”
