SALISBURY — One of the main ways Salisbury and Rowan County keep their residents informed on matters both big and small is through RoCo Alerts.

At the Feb. 20 Salisbury City Council meeting, Communications Director Linda McElroy and Allyson Summitt of Rowan County Emergency Services gave the council an update on RoCo Alerts and how they can best be implemented.

In 2016, the city first considered employing a mass notification system by hiring the company Nixle, with the county having their own through Code Red. After an emergency incident in East Spencer, the city and county decided to be under the umbrella of one single system. The two agencies later joined forces to partner with Everbridge, the app where people can receive RoCo Alerts.

It is free to sign up and a person can modify how they want their notifications delivered, whether it’s by email, text or a landline. The city and county have a $30,000 contract with Everbridge and Salisbury is responsible for paying $6,000 of that amount.

Across the county, 2,000 people currently manually opt-in for RoCo Alerts, 3,400 opt-in for Nixle, which is still in operation, and 28,000 have alerts set up for their landlines and voice over internet protocol. McIlroy said they are working on getting more people to sign up through advertisements and notices in “The Lamplighter” newsletter.

Many local organizations like the Salisbury Fire Department, the Salisbury Police Department, Salisbury-Rowan Utilities, Public Works and Rowan County Emergency Services are all involved with the RoCo Alert system.

Thanks to RoCo Alerts, residents are told if there is a weather emergency, road closure, missing individual, power outage or an active shooter in the area. People are not told of “minor” traffic signal repair, private events or road closures that last less than an hour.

“We don’t want our residents to get used to the notifications and that we’re sending them very often. We want to be mindful of how often we’re sending these,” McElroy said.

McElroy pointed out if something happens on a particular neighborhood or street, only people who live nearby will get those alerts.

“The great thing about it is that we can narrow down in specific neighborhoods on specific roads so that we don’t have to send out that alert to the entire city,” McElroy said.

By using Nixle, people can submit tips to the police department called “police tipping” that is sent to certain officers on duty. Another feature includes obtaining information on the Cheerwine Festival before and during the event.

Summit said Rowan County now has access to FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) in the Everbridge app where people can choose what to be notified of, but that it’s only for “extreme emergencies.”

To sign up for RoCo Alerts, people can visit the city, county, or Everbridge websites, download the Everbridge app and search Roco Alerts, or text the word “Salisbury” to 888777.