The Municipality of Shawville is in the process of rolling out a new telephone alert system to give residents a heads-up on things like water main breaks or boil-water advisories. Mayor Bill McCleary said that they used to rely on a volunteer telephone tree, but there were difficulties with retaining volunteers and keeping contact lists updated.

The new service is offered by the company Telmatik. McCleary said that they had considered moving to a service like it several years ago when he was a councillor, but they decided at the time that it was redundant. He said that the cost of the system works out to about a dollar per resident, or roughly $1,700 with a $300 fee per year.

One feature that he pointed out was the ability to target messages to certain streets or neighbourhoods that are affected by an alert. He said that they had already tried it out by contacting those in the vicinity of the current water main break in the area of King and Princess Streets.

To sign up for the service, follow the link on the municipality’s website.

The full interview with McCleary is available below.