ATHABASCA – The Town of Athabasca may have a new notification system up and running by the end of February that will allow residents to receive messages about road closures, water outages, open houses, tax deadlines and so forth.
Town councillors passed a motion at their Jan. 24 meeting directing administration to proceed with a subscription to the Alertable Notification Software.
As noted in a report to council, the possibility of setting up a notification system was previously discussed at a Tri-council meeting, at a regional chief administrative officer (CAO) meeting and during budget deliberations.
Chief administrative officer Rachel Ramey stated the Alertable system is being utilized by the Village of Boyle and they are reportedly very happy with how it works. She added that the hope is to have Athabasca County use the system as well, though that is up to them.
“We were hoping to take a regional approach with an app because we are so connected with Athabasca County and the Village of Boyle,” she said. “The app will allow you to sign up for multiple locations, so it will have the ability to capture a large area.”
The report to council notes that messages will be sent via an Alertable mobile app available for iOS and Android, a smart speaker app for Amazon Alexa and google Assistant, workplace communication apps like Microsoft Teams and slack, social media pages like Facebook and Twitter, and via e-mails and phone calls if people subscribe to those services.
Ramey noted that not everyone has access to Facebook, reads the newspaper or listens to the radio, and those who don’t often miss important notifications and alerts.
“We are looking to provide another avenue for the community to receive important information that may affect them,” she said.
The report to council states the cost of the system is $3,600 per year, plus an additional four cents per message that is sent out. There is also a one-time set-up fee of $1,000.
In terms of who would be able to send out messages, the report to council notes that the town’s plan would allow for up to five users to send notification messages. The plan also comes with 24/7 access to customer service.
As noted above, Ramey said they hope to have the system up and running by the end of the month.
“We are hoping to see as many people as possible sign up for it,” she added.
