City of Cottonwood

NEWS RELEASE

199 S. 6^th Street -  cottonwood, az 86326
928.634.4246  www.cottonwoodpd.org

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 15, 2013

The City of Cottonwood Police and Utility Departments proudly announce the deployment and full functionality of the Cottonwood Emergency Notification System (CENS).  Developed by Inspiron Logistics, LLC., this technology provides a web based platform  for the purpose of notifying our citizens of important or emergent public safety circumstances. Residents may also be notified of utility outages and road closures using this system.

Prior to this technology, public safety employees would have to manually contact residents and businesses by telephone of an emergency in their area.  While receiving 9-1-1 calls and updating responders during a major incident, it is virtually impossible to contact each business and residence in the hazard zone in a timely manner.

Citizens and businesses with landline telephones will receive CENS notifications utilizing the same data that allows 9-1-1 call takers the ability to identify a 9-1-1 caller’s location.  With the use of a digital map, public safety officials will be able to select a notification zone and send messages to all landline telephones within that zone. Residents and business occupants who do not have a landline telephone are still able to receive emergency notifications. 

The City of Cottonwood website now includes a notification sign-up portal which will allow citizens the option of signing up for CENS.  Notifications can be sent to home phones, cell phones, email and pagers.  Citizens signing up for notifications may also opt to receive non-emergency community notifications, such as road closures, temporary utility outages, or weather alerts through NOAA.  If the internet is not a viable option for registering, CENS notification opt-in forms will be available at all City of Cottonwood public offices.

CENS will also be utilized for internal purposes to better serve the community.  CENS can be utilized internally to quickly assemble officers and employees for deployment to critical incidents. Similarly, the City of Cottonwood will be able to quickly notify volunteers, such as TIP of AZ or our Citizens On Patrol (COP), to respond to incidents. 

For further information in regard to CENS, please log onto the City website at www.cottonwoodaz.gov or contact our Communications Supervisor, Marie Carpenter, at (928) 634-4246.

for additional information contact:   Commander Gary Eisenga 634-4246

 http://entry.inspironlogistics.com/cottonwood/wens.cfm

Mayor Joens' note: We are very excited about this new program that we've put in place for the citizens of Cottonwood. Our council and staff do everything we can to provide quality public safety and a great quality of life for our residents.