By Charlene Sims, info@linncountyjournal.com
MOUND CITY – On Monday, Jan. 13, Linn County Economic Development Director Chasity Ware reported to the Linn County Commission on her continued efforts to upgrade the county’s website. And while she indicated progress had been made on that front, there might be some dissension among county officials about the best notification system.
Staff with the county Emergency Management department believes that once the Everbridge notification system upgrade is complete, it will be equal to or superior to the CivicReady system. The commission last year voted to purchase the CivicReady system for $4,200 year after opponents to solar farms complained about not being notified about planning and zoning committee meetings.
At Monday's commission meeting, Ware told the commission that she had met with Mat Casner from Mound City-based Red Logic for a strategy session about the website. As a result of that consultation she said that now that she better understood what the county needed, and that she would be seeking bids from Red Logic, Social: Managed, and CivicPlus to make the upgrade.
Ware said there was still a question about the cost of the county’s inmate page that is currently updated hourly. She said if it was put in as a search bar it probably would not be an extra cost.
Commissioner Jason Hightower said that he had received information from Sheriff James Akes about the inmate list on the website. He told the other commissioners that Akes said that they were not required to have the inmates list on the internet. But also said Akes told him that people used to call all of the time to see if someone had been arrested.
Commissioner Alison Hamilton asked Ware if she had an estimate timeline as to when it would be finished.
“If I had my way about it, it would have been done yesterday, but because of all of the different massive updates that we have got to do . . .,” said Ware.
“I don’t know if I mentioned this to the commissioners or not prior to this – if an individual is not where they want to be within two clicks, maximum of three, they are out, they are frustrated, they are moving on, they’re like, ‘I’ll just make a phone call,’” she added. “Back to the question about the timeframe.
“With CivicPlus, I think it is a six- to nine- month ordeal. With Social:Managed out of Louisburg, it’s about a three- to four- month time ordeal. And with Red Logic, I am being told it can be done in about two months.”
“It’s going to come down to money,” Ware added, “and I couldn’t give you a hardcore idea until we had this strategy session.”
That conversation led into discussion about the CivicPlus notification system CivicReady and what kind of notice had to be given.
Ware said she was not convinced that the county should get rid of that system. She said if the county would just use it the way it is intended.
“I feel like every employee should be required to be signed up to that,” said Ware. “Every person that comes into HR and is hired should be signed up to that. There’s a third of your county right there that’s going to be signed up underneath that.”
She said that she did go into the Everbridge notification system, and a user cannot pick and choose what kind of notifications they want to receive.
However, in a phone interview with Emergency Management Director Randy Hegwald on Thursday, he said that Everbridge was not just an emergency system, it was a notification system for the county. He said that while it was set up originally to just do emergency notifications, his office is working through and programming the system to meet Linn County's needs. He also pointed out that the system was free.
As an example, Hegwald said that it could be set up so that each city could go into it and put out notifications, public announcements or emergencies, and those notifications would only go to people in that area.
The Everbridge system is provided without charge by the U.S. Homeland Security Department. The CivicReady system cost the county about $4,200 to implement for a year at the beginning of 2024.
At Monday’s meeting, Hamilton said she was in favor of keeping the CivicReady notification system. She said that there had been complaints about Everbridge relating to a county planning and zoning commission meeting, and it infuriated people in the county because that was just supposed to be an emergency system. She said that was the reason CivicReady was looked into was to help on the meetings.
Hamilton said that, even though training was supposed to happen for department heads to learn how to use CivicReady, they do not know how to use it.
Ware said that she did not think the CivicReady service should be pulled because the county was not using the system the way it should be used.
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