Finance Committee Page 13
August 3, 2016
the things that we hear regularly when we go out into the community is that we need to have diversity when it
comes to the systems that we send emergency notifications with. Three years ago my perspective was that
we should go the route of an App and really be able to send out notifications via that kind of a service. When it
came down to it we found out that many folks still relied on land lines, cell phones and text messages for their
notification services. The other challenge that we ran into when we were looking solely towards the more
advanced technologies were really the ability for us to be able to share both non-emergency information and
emergency information and be able to get it to them in a timely manner. We have social media, the city
website and plenty of other avenues that we can get this information out and we do utilize those but they don’t
have that same ability to be able to “ping” a person for the most part and those systems are more passive
versus the ability for us to make that phone call and make it in the middle of the night when we need to get
their attention. Many of you have probably gotten messages in the past couple of years from a system called
IPAWS which was an infrastructure that was built by FEMA. It’s built into every new phone whether it’s Smart
or not. It enables the federal government or any other authorized user to be able to turn your phone on and it
makes all kinds of weird noises. You may have seen it during tornado warning or things like that. The city is
one of two entities in the state that has that has that ability at the local level but we can only use that system for
life or death situations. If there hazardous materials and we needed to be able to tell people to shelter and
place immediately. The weather service, we wouldn’t even interfere with that, the weather service would send
those alerts using that system directly. As part of this CodeRED contract you may have seen an addendum
which authorizes the city, as part of the CodeRED contract to be able to access the IPAWS system. So not
only with CodeRED are we using the more traditional and legacy style systems like land line telephone, cell
phone, text messaging and e-mail but we also have the ability to enter into the IPAWS system. IPAWS is not
one of those capabilities that we can just go on the FEMA website and be able to have a username and
password; we need some sort of a service provider to authorize that. | would just reiterate that the whole
concept is, and it sounds kind of funny from the emergency manager but | don’t sign up for CodeRED because
| do have other ways to get that information, | am a young person that has grown up in that era. We have to
think about all the other folks that rely on these communications. After every one of these is sent out | get a
few people that say unsubscribe me because | don’t live in Nashua anymore and sometimes they don’t live in
Nashua but like to Know what is going on.
Alderman Siegel
I’m aged but technology savvy. | appreciate your diligence and especially getting the cost down. | learned
something. | could definitely support this now where before | would have been more skeptical.
Alderman Clemons
| want to say congratulations on getting the cost down, | think it’s an important service. When | am away and
cell phone service is spotty at best and if that’s spotty then there is no internet so | want to know what’s going
on in the city when | am away. | think it’s a good use of money.
MOTION CARRIED
MOTION BY ALDERMAN SIEGEL TO TAKE FROM THE TABLE THE COMMUNICATION REGARDING
THE REPLACEMENT VEHICLE FOR THE 2002 CHEVY MALIBU
MOTION CARRIED
From: Dan Kooken, Purchasing Manager
Re: Purchase of 2016 Ford Fusion SE Hybrid
Department: 173 Environmental Health
Account Description: 2016 CERF - Vehicles and 2017 CERF — Vehicles
e Replacement of the 2002 Chevy Malibu Tabled Pending Additional Information — 7/20/16
