×
×
homepage logo
LOGIN
SUBSCRIBE

The next wave of municipal communication

By Staff | Oct 3, 2013

If there was a road closure or major accident in your neighborhood, you’d probably want to know about it.

If the city of Nashua put out a boil-water order, that’s the kind of thing you’d probably want to find out sooner rather than later.

If there was a missing child, you’d undoubtedly want to know that, too, just on the off-chance that you might be able to help.

It’s fair to say that, where the public’s business is concerned, we think more communication is nearly always better.

So we were encouraged to see Nashua move ahead recently with its rollout of the CodeRed emergency notification system. City officials sent out an email last month to let residents know that the system was operational and people can begin to sign up for alerts.

The CodeRed system allows city officials to disseminate widespread alerts to residents via phone calls, emails and text messages about matters large and small.

In Litchfield, where they’ve had the system for a while, police last month sent out an alert about a series of burglaries in town and soon received the break they needed in the form of several tips that came rolling in from the community. Police expected to make a couple of arrests as a result of those leads.

Justin Kates, Nashua’s emergency management director, said in addition to police and emergency management notifications, the city can also use it to let people know about things like parks and recreation events, travel and public health advisories, street closures and construction updates. The system can even be tailored to target messages only to people in a specific neighborhood.

But lest you worry that you’ll get spammed with unwanted messages to your cellphone, the good news is the system allows users to pick what alerts you want to receive when you sign up. In fact, the system requires you to opt-in to receive most non-emergency communication.

It’s free to sign up, though taxpayers are paying for it through the city budget; aldermen signed a three-year, $108,000 contract with the Florida company that runs CodeRed.

Such emergency communication systems also seem to be a bona fide trend in muncipal communications. About 70 communities around the state have signed contracts with CodeRed, while other towns use similar notification systems. Merrimack, for example, regularly uses a system known as Nixle to alert motorists to accidents or road closures.

Nashua has a link on its website www.nashuanh.gov/EmergencyManagement/CodeRed that allows people to sign up. If you haven’t done so already, we’d suggest you at least think about it.

If only so you don’t miss the next boil-water order.

Newsletter

Join thousands already receiving our daily newsletter.

Interests
Are you a paying subscriber to the newspaper? *