ASHLAND — The Ashland County EMA Director has sounded an alarm on the Wireless Emergency Notification System, commonly referred to as WENS.
WENS sends notifications straight to phones via text message for emergencies and alerts such as boil advisories, tornados and floods, among other incidents.
But many people in Ashland County are not using the alert system, and that fact concerns Anne Strouth, the county’s EMA director.
Strouth said Thursday during an Ashland County commissioners meeting that not even a third of residents have signed up for the alerts.
But it’s even worse than that.
The actual number of subscribers is much lower, according to WENS. Only 5,757 people have subscribed to the alert system — a number that represents only 11% of Ashland County residents.
But that percentage could be lower, Strouth said, because some subscribers are from surrounding counties.
“Some people have moved away from Ashland and still receive (text alerts),” she said, adding WENS does not track residency of its subscribers.
Strouth said her original estimate to commissioners included duplicates.
“The report I had initially ran showed the total number of all groups and users. The problem with that is ‘duplication.’ Users can choose as many subgroups as they want so subscribers were counted several times,” she wrote in an email to Ashland Source.
‘Utmost capabilities’
Although subscribers do not pay a fee for the alert system, WENS does come at a cost to the EMA office. Strouth said the system costs the office $11,250 over a three-year contract period. Some of that cost is covered through grant funding, but some of it comes out of the EMA’s budget, she said.
“I want to be able to use it to its utmost capabilities,” Strouth said of WENS.
Ashland County commissioner Mike Welch said registering for the alert system is easy. A form is available to fill out on the county’s website. It’s free.
“It really works well,” said Denny Bittle, an Ashland County commissioner.
Strouth said Thursday, in a separate interview with Ashland Source, that WENS will soon include snow emergency notifications from the Ashland County Sheriff’s Office.
The office, historically, issues level 1, 2 and 3 snow emergencies — but the announcements are limited to the sheriff’s website and Facebook page.
For more information on WENS, and how to sign up, click here.