Alert Received: A Town-Wide Messaging System For Bar Harbor Still Discussed
Committee member pleads for purpose and projects
BAR HARBOR— Want to know if the town office is shutting down early without looking it up on Facebook or the town’s website? Or maybe you might have to move your car because of winter plowing, but you can’t check the website because you’re internet is down? Want to know before you get there if a road is closed because of trees on wires or a fire or police emergency? Or maybe that a water main has burst downtown and there is a detour?
A town-wide text messaging system telling people when there are parking bans or street closures or emergencies is still on pause for Bar Harbor after a Communications and Technology meeting via Zoom, January 29.
The project, according to Technology Systems Administrator Steve Cornell was started by former Town Manager Kevin Sutherland and then given to the town’s Communications Coordinator Maya Caines in 2022. Caines discussed this at the “Manager’s Minutes” at the Jesup Library. The concept had been partially prompted by the MDI High School lockdown that occurred on November 1, 2022. In December 2022, she’d hoped to have a text messaging system up and running within 10 weeks.
At the time, Caines explained that an administrator would be responsible for how information went out to the public. Those alerts could be via voice or text and on mobile or landlines as well as social media. There is also an option to opt-in to receive email alerts. Individuals would also be able to subscribe to different types of alerts (e.g. emergency only, road work, reminders).
Caines was let go from that communications coordinator position shortly after Sutherland’s resignation as town manager in January 2022. She is now a town councilor. There is no longer a staff communications coordinator, and there is not one in the budget presented by new Town Manager James Smith.
The system could send notifications for things such as winter parking bans, a street closure due to a watermain break, said Town Councilor Matt Hochman during the Monday meeting.
When the winter parking street-parking ban changed from a constant ban to an as needed ban last winter, it made Hochman supportive of the program because people with cars parked on streets could benefit from a text notification.
“It’s posted on the website and Facebook,” Hochman said of ban’s and the town’s website, “but not everybody uses Facebook.”
“It will help the town get out information,” committee member Bo Jennings said. “If we consolidate information and get it out there—the correct information,” everything would be smoother.
At a meeting in November, Cornell said that the CivicPlus system has a module for this, called CivicReady, which the town paid for last year. It’s more of a communications project than a technology project, he said. At that meeting, they said they’d look toward the town manager for advice. There was also discussion that if the system were in place, it would need someone to run it, inputting messages and receiving them from departments.
Smith said he would look into the possibility and there would hopefully be an update at the committee’s March meeting. Smith said that he has not yet talked to the fire and police departments about the program and if they desired the system.
The program has an annual renewal cost, Cornell said. “It’s not cheap either.”
After the meeting, Cornell and Finance Director Sarah Gilbert said the annual cost is $4,144.15.
THE ROLE OF THE COMMITTEE
Jennings also asked for more for the small committee to do. He hoped for clear direction from the council to make it a more productive committee and said, “I’d just love for this committee to either have more purpose or members reallocated to committees that need members to get stuff done.”
“I appreciate that, Bo,” Smith said and added that it’s a conversation he can have with the council. However, he said, of the committee’s work, “I’m not of aware of any big projects coming down the pipe that need to be vetted out.”
“I would just love for that to be a conversation. That way we make good use of everyone’s time here,” Jennings said during the meeting that lasted less than a half hour. “Everybody’s here to serve. We just want to be productive with our time. We’ve got great people here who can do things for this town. We just need to be put to better use.”
Hochman said the committee has use when it has tasks. In the past, that was the fiber build out and installation and the cable tv channel equipment. It’s really become more of an ad hoc committee, he said. The committee is only required to meet four times a year including the organizational meeting.
Jennings said that maybe since the Town Council is doing work on the current committee structures and needs, maybe it could look at making the communications truly an ad hoc committee. “It’s not a complaint; it’s really a plea. I just want to be more productive.”
The town’s Harbor Committee recently delved into its purpose. The Town Council disbanded the Cruise Ship Committee after some residents worried about its composition and said that they had lost trust in its ability to fairly advise the Town Council. The Age Friendly Committee has not been meeting and asked to disband.
There was no cable consortium status update.
Chair Lucas Callado, Vice Chair Todd Edgar, and member Cosmo Nims also attended.
NEXT MEETING AND LINKS TO LEARN MORE
The next meeting is currently scheduled for March 18 at 4 p.m. at the Bar Harbor Municipal Building, Suite 301.
To learn more about the system, click here.
https://www.barharbormaine.gov/368/Communication-Technologies