Letter From the Mayor, John Kahl
CodeRed is a widely used, high speed emergency notification system that allows local officials to alert residents about time-sensitive, life-safety incidents via phone, text messages, email, and social media platforms. For several years now, the City of East Peoria has commonly used this system to alert residents or targeted neighborhoods about road closures or disruptions, water service disruptions, power outages, upcoming City events, severe weather alerts, early closures, and other pertinent information. Residents were required to register their contact information either directly on CodeRed’s official website or through the City’s portal to receive these notifications.
Always grateful,
John
In recent years, we have seen a decline in both the number of registrants and the number of City departments using the CodeRed notification system. In researching why only one department was actually utilizing the notification system, we learned that most city departments found the launch code process that was required for them to use CodeRed to be somewhat cumbersome and time consuming. We do believe that it is in the best interest of our community to offer an emergency notification system, so Emma Admire, our Communications and Administrative Coordinator, took some time researching other emergency notification systems that are now available to us through the advancements in technology.
Emma recently shared those results with all of our department heads and after thoughtful consideration, the City has made the decision to switch to the Hyper-Reach mass notification system. Hyper-Reach is a secure, user-friendly mass notification system designed for public safety, and we have confidence that this advanced smart alert system with cutting edge features will enable us to deliver critical information with speed, accuracy and reliability. The messaging options for residents to receive critical updates, emergency alerts, and important announcements from the City include via text, phone, email, internet-based, and smart speaker (Alexa) alerts.
Hyper-Reach delivers instant weather alerts using real-time data from the National Weather Service. The system isn’t just for emergencies – it’s a powerful tool for everyday communication. The City will be using the system to send alerts regarding road closures or disruptions, city service disruptions, boil water notices, prolonged power outages, early closures, crime updates, missing persons, community-related events, and targeted messaging to only residents in affected areas.
The City will be going live with the Hyper-Reach mass notification system later this month and encourages all residents to get registered once the registration process opens. The Hyper-Reach registration process is simple and can be done using SMS, email, a mobile-friendly web-based form or voice registration over the phone. Stay tuned for more information!
The safety of our community will always be our top priority.
Always grateful,
John