When severe weather strikes, seconds really do count, especially in rural areas.
After his years in Emergency Management, Director Daniel Smith knows this firsthand.
At Friday’s regularly scheduled fiscal court meeting, Smith asked the Court for monies to update the county’s reverse 911 system to allow for quicker and more efficient notification to the county’s residents in the event of severe weather.
The updated CodeRED automated alert system activates weather alerts via text messages seconds after the National Weather Service issues its weather warnings. No human action is required with the updated system, a change from the current system where Smith must manually enter and send out the alerts based on issued National Weather Service bulletins.
The Court voted unanimously to purchase the updated system until the end of the budget year, a cost of about $400.
Residents can sign up for the CodeRED system on the Todd County webpage or by clicking here.
The county will also move ahead with its application for a Rubber Modified Asphalt grant after magistrates heard from Angela Herndon from the Pennyrile Area Development District.
Herndon told the Court that the grant, administered by the Kentucky Division of Waste Management would allow for the paving of 1 section of road with rubber-modified asphalt. The county, if it receives the grant, will be responsible for paving another equal section of the same road with traditional asphalt. The rubber-modified asphalt uses rubber from finely ground waste tires.
The state will monitor the grant projects and will be performing testing to assess the effectiveness of the rubber-modified asphalt on Kentucky roads and to compare it to traditional asphalt.
Herndon reports the results from the modified asphalt project in Christian County have been favorable.
According to Judge Executive Todd Mansfield, Stateline Road in Guthrie has been selected for the project.
In other news, magistrates rejected a $1.5 million bid submitted by ESG Energy for the county’s energy savings project. The county will re-advertise for bids. Additionally, the Court approved a $1000 donation to Todd County School’s Family Resource and Youth Service Centers and approved the purchase of new 4’x6′ dry-erase boards for the training room at the county courthouse.
Anna Mallory contributed to this story
