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I presented a proposal for a Resident Alert System at last night’s Council Meeting, hoping that it would be a simple matter to get approval of $100 to be used from office allotment monies intended for equipment and office supplies so that a pilot program could be started.

The cost for West Easton would be $4/mo for a designated text number plus .04 cents (each phone number) for a text it sends out. That is, if 100 residents receive the alert it will cost the borough $4. Costs to the resident will be dependent upon their cell phone service plan regarding text messages. There is no subscription fee to residents for joining the system and no contract required from the borough to implement the service.

There was belief expressed by a couple of people that an Emergency Alert System wasn’t needed or would not be taken advantage of by residents, so the best I could do at the meeting was to have Council agree to advertise locally in our newsletter, the borough website, and other means available (excluding local newspapers) to inform residents that they can “opt-in” to the system in order to show that there was an interest in having one.

Councilman Tom Nodoline believed that emergency notifications are already made by utility companies, when I used an example of a gas leak, among others I gave. He felt residents interest should be known before any money was approved.

Mayor Gerald Gross was supportive, believing anything that can improve the safety of the residents is worth it.

Tricia Mezzacappa complained, out of order from her seat, that West Easton is “only 10 blocks” and we haven’t had this [text system] for 100 years. She believed an email would be enough.

Council voted 3-1 (Tom Nodoline dissenting) to make a decision at a future meeting of whether to spend $100, following a report by our Borough Manager of resident interest.

Oddly enough, Tom Nodoline dissented on the motion that conformed to his concerns. That being to wait until resident interest was evaluated. I actually amended my original motion to comply with Councilman Tom Nodoline’s opinion.

Council will be updated at future meetings by Borough Manager Joan Heebner regarding the number of residents who want to be part of the system, should it actually be approved for a roll out. Council will have to approve the roll out before the $100 is authorized.

There are a number of reasons why West Easton should have a system in place. I listed a number of them in the written proposal I gave to all of Council. That proposal can be read below.

Along with the reasons given below it should be noted that in a true emergency a system should be in place to notify residents as quickly as possible. Whether it is an active shooter, a missing child, or simply a rabid raccoon roaming the borough, we can’t wait for it to be posted on Channel 69, or for word of mouth to be passed from neighbor to neighbor.

When I took my Council seat in 2016, I stated that I would try to bring West Easton into the 21st Century. Tools are available now that weren’t available 100 years ago and they are inexpensive to implement. We should take advantage of them, just as we are doing with the website I put online for the Borough. We survived 100 years without that, but it is worth having. 100 years ago we didn’t have a lot of things we do now, so I fail to see the relevance of such arguments.

A Text Alert System would have been useful during Super Storm Sandy. It might be useful today, as I look out my window at a Nor’easter currently hitting us with high winds and more than a foot of snow.

If you wish to opt in, please CLICK HERE. The form that will pop up only needs you to fill in the required information. It can be dropped off at Borough Hall. Joan, our Borough Manager, will keep it on file for use in the system.

Forms will also be available at the borough office.

SMS Resident Alert System

For Consideration:

A method for notifying residents quickly, efficiently, and inexpensively of matters involving Borough safety, street closures, emergencies, etc.

For the Mayor, Borough Manager, and any future Emergency Management Coordinator’s use.

Short Message Service (SMS), also commonly referred to as a “Text Messaging” is being used by an increasing amount of communities in our area and those throughout the United States as a means of Agencies to inform residents of important information for their protection and awareness of situations that they may need to prepare for, or react to.

A company called, Nixle has been providing this service the local communities of Wilson Boro, Palmer Twp., Bethlehem, Nazareth, Upper Macungie, Bushkill Twp, and *Tatamy.

Nixle has created a SMS platform that has a lot of “bells and whistles.” It can automatically send a message to the borough’s Facebook account that is sent to residents, can post the message to the borough’s own website, and can allow for quick opt-in by the resident texting a number code to the borough’s SMS service.

Nixle’s minimum contract amount for their service, based on the population of West Easton would be $3000/yr (confirmed with a Rep from Nixle).

A CONTRACT WITH NIXLE IS NOT BEING PROPOSED

*Tatamy was the first community to enter into an agreement with Nixle when they first began their start-up system. Tatamy is using a free version that appears to have been withdrawn for use by other communities that followed, as Nixle grew in popularity. Other communities are paying between $3000 and $7000 per year for the service.

THE ALTERNATIVE RECOMMENDATION:

An SMS platform made available from a number of companies found on the Internet.

The SMS platform is downloaded onto a computer workstation and appears as an email type of menu (using names and phone numbers, rather than email addresses).

Messages are sent from the computer workstation using the provided platform. One message typed and one additional click sends out the message to intended recipients.

Group Creation

“Groups” can be created on the menu. In our case, groups could be assigned street names. An additional “group” might be those living on snow emergency routes. An unlimited amount of groups can be created, including those who might have medical conditions in which a power outage could affect their lives and the borough might want to check their status.

The ability to send a message to all residents, only the selected group(s), or to individuals is available from the platform.

THERE IS NO CONTRACT FOR THIS SERVICE

• $4/mo. for designated text phone number.
• .04 cents per recipient of text message (100 texts = $4)
• Text message credits purchased never expire.
• Credits can be purchased as needed by the Borough
• Purchase Order number can be applied to purchase and a receipt downloaded.
• No charge to residents from borough to join system. *No charge from borough to receive a message.
• All texts sent are kept on record for 6 months and can be downloaded.
• Text messages can be scheduled to be sent out at a later date (in anticipation of road closure, for example)
• Attachment files can be included in text messages (not applicable in voice conversion).
• SMS messages can also be sent as an email, if required.
• Templates can be created for messages most common (such as snow emergencies).
• Some “bells and whistles” are available, such as creating sub-accounts for additional users (whose access to lists of who can be contacted can be restricted).
• For those without a cell phone (landline only), or vision problems that make it difficult or impossible to read a text message, a message can be automatically converted to a voice message from an option provided on the platform (at no additional charge).
• Customer Support is available.

*Your phone service provider may charge for text messages. Check your plan with your service provider.

It is my desire that Council would agree to authorize our Borough Manager to spend $100 from the office’s monthly $800 allotment (designated for equipment and supplies) for the purpose of purchasing enough credits to enact a pilot program of an SMS Resident Alert System. $100 would provide approximately 5 months of a designated phone number cost ($20) and 2000 texts ($80) to be used for messaging.

Our Borough Manager can roll-out the System when it is determined that a sufficient number of residents have enrolled to begin “testing” the system live.

Enrollment – The SMS Alert System would require residents to “opt-in.”

Residents would need to be informed of the SMS pilot program through our newsletter, website, a quarterly sewer/trash bill note, outside billboard, forms available at office, and other means that may be available.

If you wish to opt in, please CLICK HERE.