BERLIN– A new mass notification system that employs a variety of communication platforms will notify Berlin residents of the circumstances during emergencies, town officials announced during the Tuesday. Oct. 14 mayor and council meeting.
The town sent request for proposals on the project in September and received four bids. Deputy Town Administrator Mary Bohlen, Berlin Police Chief Arnold Downing and Card’s Computers President Sam Card reviewed each proposal.
CodeRED, a system developed by Emergency Communications Network, won the bid. A video demonstration on the company’s website describes CodeRED as “A high-speed emergency notification solution designed to notify millions of people in minutes.”
The system informs communities about missing children, evacuations, hurricanes, wildfires and severe weather, and can be used to dispatch first responders. Alerts are sent by phone, text, email, social media and via the company’s CodeRED Mobile Alert app, which transmits “geo-specific messages” to both visitors and residents in a given area.
“It will enable us in times of emergencies or other events such as power outages, water main breaks, any kind of event we want to let a lot of people know about at one time,” Bohlen said. “It will allow us to push out text messages, emails and even voice phone calls to people, letting them know that we’re experiencing an issue and providing updates.”
Users can also give feedback during emergencies.
“That helps us to narrow things down, but it also enables people to know that we’re on top of it,” Bohlen said. “It will save us the great volume of phone calls that come into our offices, particularly into the police department for afterhours it will be a far more proactive way of letting people know what’s going on and that the town is working on it.”
Users, who can sign up online or by phone, can select which types of alerts they want to receive.
Downing said the system would address power outages and notify residents about upcoming events.
“This system allows us to go ahead and do general notices about events and other things, where with other plans we wouldn’t have been able to do that – we would have had to do emergencies only,” Downing said. “Individuals have the ability to opt out if they don’t want to keep getting texts from the town of Berlin.”
The contract includes a one-year opt-out. Downing said ECN also provided the lowest bid.
“We really feel confident, and Card really walked through it with us on the technology side of it, and if it doesn’t work out after a year we can opt out and go with someone else.”
Downing added that any department could employ the technology, “to get the message out.”
The mayor and council unanimously approved the $3,352.50 bid, which will come out of the Electric Department budget. Bohlen said she expects the system to be online by the end of the year.
The town sent request for proposals on the project in September and received four bids. Deputy Town Administrator Mary Bohlen, Berlin Police Chief Arnold Downing and Card’s Computers President Sam Card reviewed each proposal.
CodeRED, a system developed by Emergency Communications Network, won the bid. A video demonstration on the company’s website describes CodeRED as “A high-speed emergency notification solution designed to notify millions of people in minutes.”
The system informs communities about missing children, evacuations, hurricanes, wildfires and severe weather, and can be used to dispatch first responders. Alerts are sent by phone, text, email, social media and via the company’s CodeRED Mobile Alert app, which transmits “geo-specific messages” to both visitors and residents in a given area.
“It will enable us in times of emergencies or other events such as power outages, water main breaks, any kind of event we want to let a lot of people know about at one time,” Bohlen said. “It will allow us to push out text messages, emails and even voice phone calls to people, letting them know that we’re experiencing an issue and providing updates.”
Users can also give feedback during emergencies.
“That helps us to narrow things down, but it also enables people to know that we’re on top of it,” Bohlen said. “It will save us the great volume of phone calls that come into our offices, particularly into the police department for afterhours it will be a far more proactive way of letting people know what’s going on and that the town is working on it.”
Users, who can sign up online or by phone, can select which types of alerts they want to receive.
Downing said the system would address power outages and notify residents about upcoming events.
“This system allows us to go ahead and do general notices about events and other things, where with other plans we wouldn’t have been able to do that – we would have had to do emergencies only,” Downing said. “Individuals have the ability to opt out if they don’t want to keep getting texts from the town of Berlin.”
The contract includes a one-year opt-out. Downing said ECN also provided the lowest bid.
“We really feel confident, and Card really walked through it with us on the technology side of it, and if it doesn’t work out after a year we can opt out and go with someone else.”
Downing added that any department could employ the technology, “to get the message out.”
The mayor and council unanimously approved the $3,352.50 bid, which will come out of the Electric Department budget. Bohlen said she expects the system to be online by the end of the year.