Thursday - April 15: Wellsville's Crime Watch Committee had their regular monthly meeting this past Thursday evening at Village Hall. Chairwoman Janet Taggart presided. There were a total of six members and two guests present at the meeting.
In a way of saying thanks to the Wellsville Police Department for putting on a live demonstration of their new taser like weapons last year the Committee donated $300 to the department to be used to buy new cartridges. Shown above is Chairwoman Taggart presenting the check to Officer Glenn LaClair, representing the WPD.
Columbiana County EMA Director Darren Dodson, also shown above, presented a program explaining the Nixle early warning and notification system available to all county residents. It's free to all who sign up and it's also free for the agencies, such as the CC EMA, that use it to send messages. Messages are received as text messages on your cell phone and e-mails.
Dodson said it was first used this past winter to send out flood watches and warnings when February's heavy snow started melting and raising water levels on area streams and rivers. We signed on the day we first saw it in the newspaper. Since then we got those notifications about possible flooding, notifications on lines of thunder storms and road closures. Fortunately we weren't affected by any of it but it was nice to be forewarned, just in case.
Dodson said the EMA is responsible by Ohio Revised Code to keep citizens alerted and notified in order for them to be prepared for pending emergency situations. The most efficient method is the use of sirens. It has been determined that to effectively cover all areas of the county it would require a total of 128 sirens. At a cost of $12,000 to $15,000 each this is not a logical solution in today's economy. The first alternative that was looked at was a system that sends out voice, text and e-mail messages. At a cost of $35,000 per year this was considered pretty steep. The second alternative was half the cost but included installing, maintaining and operating free equipment. That would have required extra man power to operate the system. Enter Nixle.
Thanks to corporate, national sponsors it's an entirely free notification service. The cost is right and it has multiple uses. In addition to sending out alerts on possible emergency situations it can be used by law enforcement agencies for all points bulletins of all types of situations. It can be used by fire fighters to alert their communities on dangers and it can also be used for community event notifications. With servers in New Jersey and California it is available nationwide. You can sign up for notifications in your community and keep informed of what's going on in other areas of the country. If you have family living in Florida you can sign up for notifications from their area too. It's simple. It's trusted and it's at no cost.
To sign on go to www.nixle.com or text your zip code to 888777. You choose the information you want, for the addresses you want. Just click on the green box that says "Residents Sign Up Now" and follow the easy to follow instructions.
Dodson also gave a brief over-view of all that the EMA does. Wellsville resident Tim Long is his Assistant Director. Dodson also left a supply of informative pamphlets and other information available at Village Hall.
The Crime Watch meets the third Thursday of each month at 6 P.M. at Village Hall. There's always an informative and interesting topic for the special programs. It's open and free to the public and you are encouraged to attend. As Darren Dodson told us communities with an active Crime Watch have a lower crime rate. The program for May is Meet Your Police Officers. Members of the Wellsville Police Department will be on hand to meet everyone and answer any questions you may have. That meeting is schedule for May 20.
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