Soon, more residents and town employees will be able to be notified if a hurricane is swirling toward North Bergen or a major fire is ripping through town.
The township of North Bergen plans to update its emergency notification system following a resolution passed at the Board of Commissioners meeting last month.
At the meeting on Feb. 29, a contract of $20,495 was awarded to Everbridge, Inc. for an update to the existing system, installed three years ago and referred to as NB Connect. Right now, the system can send out emergency alerts to residents in certain parts of town via text, e-mail, and phone, depending on what residents signed up for. But the town is about to undertake a more extensive publicity campaign to get more residents to sign up, and also plans to include segments of town workers in the notification process.
Even though the existing notification system was implemented three years ago, it wasn’t used until January’s fire on Broadway, according to Chris Pianese, township administrator. The notification alerted residents to the existence of the blaze and warned of a possible loss of electricity.
“The system allows you to actually just carve out a section of the town,” said Pianese. “You go to the map and actually [input] coordinates to get whatever portion you want to call. We did that for the fire and ended up reaching out to about 1,000 people.”
The update will now be able to reach certain types of town employees in the event of emergencies. “If there’s a [police] emergency,” Pianese said, “with one notification, we can contact the entire Police Department as opposed to calling everyone individually.”
Vision Media, the town’s public relations firm, is once again planning to launch a campaign to encourage residents to sign up for the system.
“The township ran a public awareness campaign last year branding the system as NB Connect,” said Phil Swibinski, town spokesman, “and reaching out to residents to encourage them to sign up themselves and their families for emergency notification messages.”
“We did that for the fire and ended up reaching out to about 1,000 people.” – Chris Pianese
___________
How it works
The system calls for residents and businesses to put up profiles on the town website with the option of entering their home phone number, cell number, and e-mail address. It also gives participants the ability to receive text messages.
With the new contract, the system will be updated to allow town employees to submit their information as well.
The NB Connect website (linked at northbergen.org) lists typical notification events as “severe weather, unexpected road closures, missing persons, and evacuation of buildings or neighborhoods.”
According to Pianese, any listed North Bergen phone numbers are already included in the system, and interested parties can add additional contact information.
Pianese also addressed the concern that some senior citizens or residents without access to new technology may not be able to enter their contact information.
“We encourage other members of [senior citizens’] families to get them online with a profile,” said Pianese. “We also allow them to come to the North Bergen Library, as well as the Senior Center.”
He added, “We have computers there. We can walk them through it.”
Not to be confused with sirens
Pianese said that the notification system is not to be confused with the sirens that have been installed county-wide by the Office of Emergency Management.
In fact, last September, many residents grew concerned when the county OEM set off the alarms in tribute to the victims of the Sept. 11 tragedy. They thought there might be another terrorist attack, but the sirens were just part of a national commemoration.
The sirens were installed across the county, including in North Bergen, two years ago as a backup warning system in case other means of alerting residents to a pending emergency failed. They were funded with a $795,000 Homeland Security grant from 2006.
The sirens are equipped with a feature that alerts residents to tune into a countywide AM radio station, which will provide information about the related event. The speakers within the sirens can give voice commands and can be configured with local broadcast systems, such as a city-run cable TV station that could provide information to viewers.
Visit northbergen.org for more information on the NB Connect system.
Stephen LaMarca may be reached at slamarca@hudsonreporter.com.