Sackville is making the switch to a new emergency alert system, Voyent Alert. And while they’re at it, the town is hoping to get more people signed up to receive emergency alerts via text, email or through an app on their phone.
Roughly 1600 residents were already signed up for the previous alert system, Sentinel, and those people should have received emails or phone messages informing them they have been switched over to the new system last week.
Sackville’s director of special projects Kieran Miller says the Voyent-Alert system is more user-friendly than its predecessor, and also more predictable in cost. Voyent-Alert charges a flat rate for its service, regardless of the number of messages that it’s used to disseminate. The previous system charged based on a credit system, which created a cost disincentive to the use of the emergency messaging service.
Miller says the system will be used in the event of emergencies like extreme weather, floods, and highway closures. It likely would have been used earlier this month to alert residents of highway closures on the Transcanada in both directions during a winter storm.
Voyent-Alert can also be used to alert people in a small geographic area within the town, such as an area affected by a watermain break or other utility issue. Residents on part of Bridge Street could have been notified by the app last week when a watermain repair caused a temporary boil water advisory for certain water customers.
The system can be expanded to including things like recycling reminders and even programs and events, though for the time being it will be used strictly for emergencies, says Miller. Once additional messaging types come online, “users would have the ability to edit what kind of alerts they receive,” says Miller. “So if you were only interested in using it for emergency alerts, you can receive only those alerts. If you were interested in alerts about community events, you can select that option.”
The system is customizable for residents, who can choose to add more than one address to the system, in order to be alerted to events in other parts of town. “That way, you’re notified in the event of an emergency that might impact a family member or your business,” says Miller. Business owners or parents of children in school or daycare can take advantage of the multiple location feature, says Miller. “Or even if you are a parent and you don’t live in Sackville, but you have a student attending Mount Allison, you can also register for alerts, so you know what’s happening.”
Voyent-Alert is also amalgamation-proof. Miller says that once the new Entity 40 goes live, the town can submit a new map file to Voyent-Alert to have the new municipality covered for the same rate.
The town is making a social media push this week to get more people signed up to the new system. “I would encourage all Sackville residents to sign up for this,” says Miller.
