September 10th, 2018 by WCBC Radio
County emergency services officials encourage residents to register for a free service that will deliver urgent, potentially lifesaving messages directly to their home phone, cellular phone or email address.
The system used by Allegany County Emergency Services is called Nixle, a commercially purchased product owned by Everbridge. Nixle will deliver a specified message to a specific group via telephone, both landline and cellular, text messages or email.
“We have a commercially purchased database of wired(landline) telephone numbers that we can utilize to notify residents at home,” Allegany County Department of Emergency Services Director Dick DeVore said. “As technology advances, we want to take advantage and utilize this tool to deliver urgent messages to the citizens we serve.”
Nixle is used within our agency and in the community. Groups can be designated by geographical area, job type, business, to name a few. Additionally, information can be provided about impending severe weather, road closures, detours, important meetings and other time sensitive information.
“Many citizens do not keep a landline and their only way of receiving information is via their cellular phone,” Todd Bowman, public information officer for Allegany County Department of Emergency Services said. “By visiting the county website and registering your cellphone number or email address citizens can receives information that will directly affect them.”
The process of registering your cellular phone number or email only takes a few seconds and can save your life, Bowman said.
Residents can visit www.gov.allconet.org, click on services. Look for the heading sign-up for and select Nixle Public Safety and Transit Alerts.
DeVore said that he believes that because of the advanced abilities of this program it is more beneficial and potentially lifesaving.
Todd Bowman is the public information officer for Allegany County Department of Emergency Services. He can be reached via email at tbowman@alleganygov.org
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