“All Call” test

The Town of Hopkinton will be utilizing the CodeRED Emergency Notification System to call the entire community.

The calls will be in the morning on Wednesday, 10 February 2010 and will continue until the entire database has been attempted. This call will give Hopkinton personnel the chance to operate the system as if there has been a community wide disaster.

The message that is being delivered directs recipients to the Town of Hopkinton or Fire Department web site to add additional contact numbers, and it also asks that recipients spread the word by mentioning the system to family, friends and neighbors. The telephone number that will be displayed on the test “All Call” is 866-419-5000 and that is also a working toll free number. You can call this number back and receive the latest message sent to that phone with a time and date stamp. If you are registering a cell phone, you should save this number in their contents as a CodeRED call.

Fire Chief Ken Clark suggests that “all individuals and businesses should take the time to visit our websites and add contact information to include cellular phones and other non-traditional phones as well as email and text addresses. If your contact information is not in the database you will not receive a call when an urgent message is sent. In particular businesses should register, as well as individuals who have unlisted phone numbers, who have changed their phone number recently, and those who use a cellular phone exclusively or have VoIP phones (such as Vonage) as their primary numbers.

Chief Clark urges citizens to log onto the town website at Hopkinton.org (click on the Government tab) or the Fire Department website at Hopkintonfd.org and follow the CodeRED link on the page. Those without internet access may call Hopkinton Fire Department Administrative Manager Mary Carver at (508-435-0555) Monday through Friday from 7:30 am to 3:00 pm. Required information includes a street address (physical address, no P.O. boxes) for location purposes and a primary phone number. Additional phone numbers, email and text addresses may also be entered.

More information about the CodeRED system is on the website, any questions should be directed to Chief Clark at (508-497-2325).

About Emergency Communications Network
Emergency Communications Network Inc. (ECN) provides affordable high-speed notification solutions capable of reaching millions of citizens in minutes. ECN’s sophisticated network supports a web-based product suite featuring CodeRED^® which enables local government officials to communicate time-sensitive, personalized messages via voice, email and text messaging; CodeRED Weather Warning™ which provides automated alerts to citizens in the path of severe weather just moments after a warning has been issued by the National Weather Service; CheckUp Call™ for scheduling calls to check on at-risk individuals, including the elderly, infirm and latchkey kids; and CodeRED^® for use by school systems to improve communications with their communities. For more information about Emergency Communications Network, visit emergencycommunications.net.