On August 28, Mayor Ralph V. Suozzi signed a contract with SwiftReach Networks, Inc. of Mahwah, NJ (www.swiftreach.com) to implement their Swift911 Emergency Notification Service, which is a reverse 911-type system with the capability to contact and notify all Glen Cove residents in the event of an emergency. It will also be used to notify residents, as appropriate, for non-emergency activities or events throughout the city.

Mayor Suozzi said, "This is a cost-efficient way to notify all Glen Cove residents not only with emergency issues but also with things like upcoming roadwork, snow emergency parking rules and neighborhood-specific or special events. Residents and businesses will be notified regarding their participation and roles. There is no need to contact anyone at this time; the city will reach out to the community when the system is established and functioning."

Nassau County recently purchased and signed on with SwiftReach Networks and is now making their Swift911 notification system available to all county villages and municipalities. While the fee for this access is $350 per month, it is a strong possibility that this fee will not be charged to Glen Cove because the city recently allowed the county to install its new Digital Land Mobile Radio System at the McLoughlin Street water tower.

Swift911 is a high-speed notification system that, in the event of an emergency, contacts every household and/or phone number either by telephone, email, text or pager. All residents and businesses will be able to identify their primary contact number and up to three alternate numbers.

To ensure contact is made, the system can continue to call a home until a person answers the call or it is picked up by an answering machine. Because this program uses a map of Glen Cove in a grid, calls can be made to specific neighborhoods with information affecting only that area.

"Before implementing Swift911, we had to make individual calls and go door-to-door with fliers and use city personnel and volunteer resources. Our current method is labor-intensive, costly, difficult to mobilize and carries an unacceptable margin of error. With this new reverse 911 capability the City can make 10,000 calls in 20-30 minutes," stated Mayor Suozzi.

Next steps include working with the vendor to establish processes and procedures for administration of the system. With Swift911 the city will not have to invest a single penny in hardware or software to implement this service. Citizens will be notified of any potential emergencies such as weather-related events or within moments when something unexpected occurs, as in the case of the water emergency this past spring.

Further information will be forthcoming as well as posted on the city's website (http://www.glencove-li.com/) about the new system in the coming weeks as the city works with SwiftReach Networks to get on board and establish its emergency notification parameters and education of the public.