SALISBURY — For a city like Salisbury, keeping people informed on what goes on close to home is a 24/7 job. Those duties fall to Salisbury’s communications department, which employs several ways to share information to residents whether it’s breaking news or for a planned event that will not take place for another few days or weeks.

“For us, it’s critical to be able to get information out to our residents and our visitors. Not just about incidents, but also events that are happening, either planned or unplanned, that occur in Salisbury and Rowan County,” Communications Director Linda McElroy said. “We consistently and constantly need to make sure that we’re getting those messages out.”

Just recently, the communications department let residents know about an emergency power outage that Duke Energy had scheduled for Dec. 9. Though Duke Energy is not directly involved with the city, McElroy said that residents’ wellbeing takes precedence when it comes to their work. 

“Even with the amount of coverage that we had, there still were people who did not know about the planned outage. Yes, it was another organization, it was Duke Energy, but as servant leaders in the city of Salisbury, we need to be mindful that we provide information to our residents when it affects their safety,” McElroy said. 

Salisbury has “a number of different methods” to get in contact with people. The most popular practice they use is social media through platforms X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For breaking news, the city has X and additional social media outlets for more immediate exposure. The city tends to send out news releases for planned events and adapt that content to fit their social media accounts. 

“Depending on what the situation is, that’s how we determine which one is utilized,” Communications Coordinator Kaisha Brown said.

Besides social media, the communications department sends texts and alerts to outside media outlets, posts on Nextdoor.com, distributes the city’s “The Lamplighter” newsletter, and incorporates links to the Salisbury’s website from other channels that are not social media. 

RoCo Alerts and WSRG TV are not as prevalent as other choices the city has, but they are sometimes the most necessary. RoCo Alerts are text messages that are directly sent to residents if it’s about a major road closure or anything that requires people’s immediate attention. The communications department doesn’t like to send out these messages too often, fearing people will ignore them considering they receive so many text messages and alerts already. 

WSRG TV is the television channel that broadcasts Salisbury City Council and Rowan County Commissioners meetings. As more people cut the cord and do away with cable, the city has a link, https://wsrgtv.com/, for access to those meetings and other types of coverage. 

To make what they do easier, McElroy encourages people to sign up for RoCo Alerts and advises the public “to meet us halfway” by telling the communications department the best ways to get in touch with them. They are currently finding out ways to engage with residents on a more personal level. 

“Right now, we’re reevaluating community engagement. What does that look like? We need to be out in the community, meeting with residents face-to-face,” McElroy said.