July 24, 2024 |
Photo – Text My Gov phone app – Courtesy Text My Gov website
The Medicine Bow governing body discussed, but made no decision, about signing up for a text-based town notification system. Two other towns in Wyoming already use the system.
During the July 8th Medicine Bow town council meeting, Councilwoman Crystal Mayfield said she and other members of the town staff attended a presentation from the Logan, Utah-based communications company Text My Gov. Councilwoman Mayfield said Text My Gov is a program that allows residents and the town to more easily communicate.
Councilwoman Mayfield said following a $500 set up fee, the text-based communications program will cost the town $1,500 a year. For an additional $1,000 a year, Text My Gov will collect and automatically add residents’ phone numbers to the database. Mayfield said she does not support having the company mine phone numbers. If the town chooses to contract with Text My Gov, the councilwoman said residents will be given the option to voluntarily sign up for text notifications.
Councilwoman Mayfield said residents won’t be required to sign up for Text My Gov notifications to contact the town.
Fire Chief Ed Standish suggested the council ask Carbon County Emergency Manager Lenny Layman about joining Alert Sense, the county’s free emergency text notification system. Town Clerk Treasurer Karen Heath asked if Alert Sense can be used to report in-town incidents, such as water main breaks. Chief Standish said no, but the system will notify the town about impending disasters.
Councilwoman Kristi Wickizer said the main advantage of Text My Gov is the ability for residents to easily report issues. For example, Councilwoman Wickizer said Text My Gov will allow a resident to quickly inform Public Works Director Brian Lashley about a water main break.
Councilwoman Mayfield demonstrated how Text My Gov works. After texting a preset number, the councilwoman received a message back with a series of keywords she can use to report an issue or get more information about town activities. Through the system, a Medicine Bow resident can easily report a pothole by sending the address and a picture directly to Public Works Director Lashley.
Clerk Treasurer Heath said Text My Gov can also be used to alert residents about incidents in specific locations, such as a closed road.
Councilwoman Mayfield said Text My Gov limits the number of messages the town can send and receive in a given year. While the exact number of texts wasn’t known at the meeting, Councilwoman Mayfield said she believes it is somewhere around 100,000 a year.
Councilwoman Wickizer said every text the town receives and sends counts toward the limit.
Councilman Lee Cook asked if a single resident could flood Text My Gov with messages. Clerk Treasurer Heath said the person responsible for managing the phone number database can choose to limit people’s access to the system.
The Medicine Bow town council asked Public Works Director Lashley his opinion of Text My Gov. Lashley said the system may be useful. However, the public works director said the town may want to focus on existing problems before adding another potential distraction.
Lashley said the towns of Greybull and Torrington are using Text My Gov. The public works director said he’s spoken to officials in both towns about the downside of using the text notification system. Lashley said Torrington is dealing with a low adoption rate and Greybull said the company updates the phone number database too slowly.
Lashley said both Greybull and Torrington reported that Text My Gov was quick to respond to technical issues.
Councilwoman Mayfield said Text My Gov representatives predict that eight to ten percent of residents will refuse to ever sign up for text notifications. Because of the small number of Medicine Bow residents, the town can easily maintain and update the database of phone numbers on its own.
Text My Gov requires the town to sign a two-year contract for the text-based alert system.
The Medicine Bow town council voted to wait to decide if it will use Text My Gove until department heads explain how the system will benefit their departments.
