Eagle County, Aspen, aims to implement text update service

Link: Aspen Times News for Aspen Colorado – News.

It’s a service Eagle County officials hope to purchase and provide free to residents. People who subscribe choose the information they want sent to their electronic devices. The information can be about an evacuation, accidents along local roads and severe weather updates, among others.

Barry Smith, Eagle County Emergency Management director, said he was close to having enough money to buy the software program from Roam Secure, an Arlington, Va. company. If Eagle County purchases the program before anyone else in Colorado, the price is chopped in half to $66,700. The funding comes from pledges made by several local government agencies. On top of the program cost, Vail pledged $23,000 to buy the computers needed to run the program, Smith said.

I couldn’t spot Eagle County on a USA map if you paid me, but I’m encouraged that today I’ve now blogged about two municipal / local governments that have either adopted or are about to adopt text update services (Stirling Council in Scotland being the other one I wrote about today).

Good work for Roam Secure. Although I reckon $133k for an emergency notification system… well… that sounds a little steep.