City testing emergency notification system

HIGH SPRINGS – On the heels of citizen complaints that some people were not aware of the “Boil Water Alert” when it was issued by the city a couple of weeks ago, staff has started using an alert service called Nixle. Approximately 100 citizens who already had Nixle activated on their cell phones received a text message when the city sent out notification of the temporary road closing on Main Street on April 8.

Although the city is using the free alert system at this time, it is limited to notification via text and email alerts only. The paid version, which will cost approximately $1 per citizen, according to High Springs Fire Chief Bruce Gillingham, would also enable the city to send recorded messages directly to home telephones as well.

While consideration is being given to switching to the paid system at some point, anyone with the ability to receive a text or email message may sign up for the free service right now. There are two ways to sign up.

If signing up on a cell phone, residents may type 888777 where the address of the person being texted would normally go. The body of the message should contain the zip code for the area in which the sender lives. Once the Send button is hit, a message will be returned from Nixle indicating a successful contact.

If signing up via computer, residents may either go directly to www.nixle.com or to the city's website at www.cityofhighsprings.us and follow the directions to complete the sign up process.

“Citizens need to be proactive and sign up for the service if they want to receive notifications in this manner,” said Gillingham. The sign up process takes five minutes and is easy to do.

The cost to the city for the initial set up of the paid system, should they decide to switch to it at some point, is $6,400 the first year and $4,900 thereafter, according to Gillingham, who has researched the Nixle service on behalf of the city.

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