BOERNE - On July 24, Kendall County Commissioners unanimously approved a two-month contract with Inspiration Logistics to start the Wireless Emergency Notification System, effective immediately.
The contract cost the county $415.84. County Judge Stolarczyk said the court’s budget for fiscal year 2023 had allotted funds for the implementation of an emergency alert system.
The proposition was made by Precinct 3 Commissioner Richard Chapman and Jeff Fincke, the emergency management coordinator for Kendall County.
Fincke said the system serves to alert any cell phone in a designated area of crisis or emergency, whether the cell owner has opted into the system or not.
Inspiration Logistics, the emergency system provider, uses geographic information system mapping to define the location of emergency notification dispersion.
Although WENS is based primarily on text messaging, Fincke said the system can also send phone calls, voicemails and emails to cell phones in the area.
“It would be based on the severity of the message.”
The notification system will also interface with social media such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, Fincke added.
“I think it would be a good investment for us to get this up and running before the first eclipse event in October,” Chapman said.
October 14’s solar eclipse will pass over nine states in the United States, beginning in Oregon at 9 a.m. and ending in Texas around noon. As the eclipse passes, Texas skies will be dark for a duration of four minutes and 53 seconds.
If they wish to, recipients of the alert system may opt out by changing the notification settings on their smartphones or by contacting a system administrator directly and providing the phone number or email that wishes to opt out.
“It’s an effort to make sure that this court can communicate with the public in the event of a natural disaster, fire emergency or other event,” Stolarczyk said.
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