Officials OK Emergency Phone System

By Tabatha Hunter

Posted: November 20, 2009 at 4:37 a.m.

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BENTONVILLE — Justices of the peace serving on the Benton County Environmental Committee placed their stamp of approval on an emergency telephone notification system for county use during a meeting Thursday night.

The notification system, provided by Cooper Notification, is designed to place phone calls and to send text messages or e-mail in the event of an emergency to Benton County residents, Justice of the Peace James Wozniak said.

The system does not stop at placing severe weather phone calls. It can also be activated for Amber Alerts, crime alerts, school closings and other information in the event of an emergency, said Jay Burchfield, a business development regional manager for Cooper Notification.

“The county has absolutely nothing to notify people with now. This system is a way to let people know what is going on,” Wozniak said.

Justice Dan Douglas agreed that it is time to implement such a system for Benton County residents.

“Here two or three years ago, we had the tornado that went through Centerton and I was sitting on my front porch watching transformers blow as it went through,” Douglas said, “I went to help when it was all over and I saw houses completely destroyed.”

“If it (the tornado) had been two or three hours later at night, there would have been several deaths there and this system can prevent that,” Douglas said.

With the Cooper Notification system, residents of Benton County will be automatically enrolled in the system and will have the ability to opt out of receiving the emergency notifications and will be able to customize when they receive alerts, what alerts they want to receive as well as what device the alerts are sent to, Burchfield said.

The cost of the system is $100,000 for the first year and $20,000 for each year thereafter, Wozniak said.

There is grant money available to the county to fund full $100,000 price tag of the first year the system is implemented and the system will be made available to all of the cities during that time. After the first year, the cities will have an opportunity to decide whether or not they want to keep the system. If they do, each city will be charged for their portion of the $20,000 annual price tag based on their population. Residents of the cities who opt not to participate will no longer receive the alerts after that time, Wozniak said.

Next, the county’s finance committee will decide whether or not it is feasible to purchase the system before forwarding the proposal to the Committee of 13 and Quorum Court for adoption.

The Finance Committee will meet at 5:30 p.m. Dec. 1 in the County Administration Building located at 215 E. Central Ave. in Bentonville.

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