The Town of Mason is rolling out a new emergency alert system for residents to get real-time alerts during emergencies or town events.
The system, CodeRED, is an alert system used by multiple towns in the area, including neighboring Wilton and Brookline. Those who wish to receive the alerts sign up with the town, and can get alerts in any of the three ways offered – voice mail, text or email – or any combination of the three, explained Fire Chief Tony Burns.
“We’re in the onboarding process; we’re just completing that now,” said Burns, while collecting signups during the first Mason Village Market last week. “We are very close to our official launch of the program. CodeRED is a wonderful program and a wonderful platform that will allow you to get emergency information on road closures, weather alerts, trees and wires down, any emergency or public event that we’re going to have in the town of Mason, for the Town of Mason residents.”
Burns said the system allow the town to alert everyone in town, or only those in a certain radius.
“In our small rural communities, it’s very tough to get messages out, in general. And this platform allows you to send mass messages out to hundreds of people at the same time about things that will be affecting your area, and it’s very user-friendly, and very easy to access. There’s nothing you need to do other than sign up, and the alerts will come to you,” Burns said.
Signing up is voluntary, but Burns said such systems are most effective is when a large number of residents are receiving the alerts, and he encouraged every resident to register. Registration is available through the town website by clicking on the CodeRED logo at the bottom of the homepage, or in person or by phone at the town offices or the fire station.
“It’s a way for us to interact with the townspeople when emergencies are happening, when storm events are happening, when we open warming centers in the winter, when we have public events going on. It’s a way for us to better interact with our community,” Burns said. “It will be real-time information, very essential for disasters. It’s the best way for us to communicate with you.”
Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172 ext. 244 or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on Twitter @AshleySaariMLT.