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Ho. Co. Commissioners Approve Hyper-Reach Emergency Notification System

By Will Johnson
Messenger Reporter

HOUSTON COUNTY – Houston County residents will soon have a new tool at their disposal to find out about emergency alerts after the Houston County Commissioners Court approved funding for the activation of the Hyper-Reach Emergency Notification System.

According to the company’s website, “Hyper-Reach is an emergency notification system, a way to send your voice, a text message, a TTY (teletype for the hearing impaired) message, or  an alarm message to as many people as you need to reach, either from our website or with just one phone call.”

During a meeting of the commissioners court held on Tuesday, July 11, Houston County Emergency Management Coordinator Roger Dickey addressed the court about the system.

Dickey said the cost of the system is $5,550 and added his office had already received funds on an 80/20 split from both Emergency Services Districts One and Two.

“We will be able to blast out warnings for everything from a 911 system outage to missing persons to weather alerts. It seems everyone is married to their cell phone and this is the best way to get the word out,” Dickey said.

“If there is a bridge out and you need to close the road, we can put out the message. We are only limited by our imagination,” he explained.

The emergency management coordinator said he had already received approval from DETCOG to relay addresses and other coordinates through the system. The system is very similar to the “Amber Alert” system, Dickey explained.

Sign-up will be available through the Houston County website.

A motion to accept the donations from ESDs One and Two was made and approved. A second motion to authorize County Judge Jim Lovell to enter into a one year contract with the Hyper-Reach Emergency Notification System was also approved.

In other matters brought before the court:

  • The commissioners approved the minutes from previous meetings.
  • The payment of bills and expenses incurred by the county were approved.
  • The environmental report was received as information by the commissioners.
  • The court approved the salaries of a full time jailer and district court coordinator.
  • An anonymous donation of $1,000 was accepted by the court to be used in the purchase of law enforcement equipment.
  • A donation of $6,000 for improvements to CR 1805 was accepted by the court.
  • A bid for road construction on CR 2210 was awarded to Crockett Construction.

 

Will Johnson may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected].

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