When reports of a rabid fox surfaced, the town sent out an emergency notification call to residents to warn them – but only to those residents with phone numbers available to town. With the drop in the number of people with land lines, the town is looking for residents to sign up and confirm their phone numbers (cell or land line) so the next time an emergency situation arises, residents can be reached.
The rabid fox was the second community emergency this fall. In September, the Kent County Water Authority issued a boil-water advisory to customers after a test showed possible E coli contamination of the water supply.
The town also used the system to notify residents in the north-western part of town when Crompton Road was closed recently for resurfacing.
While the system works with the phone numbers it has, EG's director of technology Wendy Schmidle said, "there's no easy way for the town to keep track of everybody's phone number. It's up to the residents to make sure the town has the right information."
Coincidentally, the town upgraded the system after the boil-water emergency, adding email and text notification options. Because of that, Schmidle said, it's important for people to log into the system and add those options.
One of the nice features of the system is its ability to target just those residents who need to be notified. For instance, said Schmidle, only about 25 households needed to be notified about the road work on Crompton Road. The system did just that.
To sign up or confirm you information, go to the home page of the Town of East Greenwich website and look for the box on the middle left of the page that says, "East Greenwich Alerts." There you can add your email in the box to get the town's weekly informational e-newsletter (it's great). Right below that, is the link to sign up for the Emergency Notification System.
Give it a try!
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