BURLINGTON — Mayor Miro Weinberger is encouraging city residents to sign up for a state alert system that has been expanded to include rapid updates about local Burlington issues.
VT-Alert, a statewide system run by the Department of Public Safety, sends users emails, text messages or phone calls — or all three — about a wide array of incidents, spanning from beach closures to severe weather and health risks.
Speaking at the Burlington Fire Department’s South Winooski Avenue station Tuesday, Weinberger said the desire to expand the system came after a depressurization in the city’s water system in July caused Burlington to issue a temporary boil water notice in the South End. The city learned some residents did not immediately receive the notice, “which highlighted the need for a more robust City notification method for local issues,” a press release from Weinberger’s office said.
“We live in an age when immediate communications are possible — it’s one of the wonders of the modern age,” Weinberger said Tuesday. “And yet, before today, we really lacked a way of rapidly being able to notify Burlingtonians in a comprehensive way for urgent and emerging issues.”
Burlington established a team of city employees from the Department of Public Works, the fire and police departments, the Parks, Recreation and Waterfront Department, and others to work with the state to expand notifications applicable to Burlington. They also added issues of statewide interest, like beach closures, to VT-Alert.
The updated alerts are live as of Tuesday. Weinberger said it’s a tool that can be used by anyone who may live, work in or visit Burlington.
While the city is using the statewide platform, Burlington officials control alerts applicable to the city, like a road closure. Other notices for larger or more widespread incidents, like a large winter storm, require state approval before releasing an alert.
When users sign up, they can choose from a long list of alerts they would like to receive. The alerts can also be broken up by county and city or town. There are also statewide alerts for incidents like a winter storm or a missing person.
Burlington-specific alerts now include notices of water line breaks, winter parking bans, storm preparations or 911 system failures, and more. A strong storm on Halloween knocked out Verizon cell towers in the Burlington area and customers could not get through to 911.
People can get messages by cell phone, landline, email or pager.
Burlington Fire Chief Steven Locke said the system can alert residents to an active situation in a specific geographic area. He said the alert system is capable of doing this through a reverse 911 feature, where the GPS in smartphones generally knows your location and can send a notification to your phone, similar to how AMBER Alerts already appear on iPhones, for example.
The system is funded by the state and open to all municipalities, according to Locke. Burlington will see no additional costs for expanding the alerts.
DPW’s Division Director of Water Resources Megan Moir said situations like the boil water notice last year could go more smoothly if more people sign up for the alerts.
“As a parent, I strongly encourage anyone who lives, works or spends significant time in Burlington, to please, please sign up,” Moir said. “I can’t do my job if you don’t sign up and I can’t tell you what’s going on.”
Weinberger said over 4,000 Burlingtonians are already users of VT-Alerts.
Burlington Police Deputy Chief Jon Murad said the system can be used by police for certain public safety issues, but the department already has a different alert system for police matters. BPD will be working over the coming months to expand notices sent through VT-Alerts, he said.
Murad encouraged residents who may have elderly or poorer neighbors, who may not have the ability or means to sign up for the alerts, to use the system as a way to check on their neighbors — particularly during extremely cold weather.
