JACKSON—The emergency notification system, CodeRED, will continue to alert Northampton County citizens to urgent information.

At their recent meeting, the Northampton County Board of Commissioners approved to continue the $10,000 contract with the private company for a year.

“We have been very pleased with it,” said Emergency Management Coordinator Tim Byers.

The county originally entered into a six-month contract with CodeRED back in February and since then the notification system has been tested 10 times and has assisted in two emergencies that have occurred in the county.

CodeRED allows citizens to receive pre-recorded emergency or non-emergency messages through their telephone within seconds. Bulletins sent out to citizens can alert them to urgent occurrences like inclement weather or a prison break and even ordinary happenings such as water line maintenance.

The system is a high speed telephone communication service that employs Internet mapping capability for geographic targeting of calls. The technology has the ability to isolate bulletins to a neighborhood or section in the county that may be the only areas affected by an emergency.

Byers said telephone numbers registered in the 911 system are called when a message is sent out. Secondary numbers (i.e. cell phone numbers) will also be contacted if they are registered with Byers.

Citizens can register their secondary numbers by visiting the Northampton County government web site (http://www.northamptonnc.com/) and clicking on the CodeRED icon on the left side of the screen or by calling Byers at (252) 574-0214.

CodeRED requires no internal equipment. The funding for the contract has been planned for in the current Emergency Management budget. The $10,000 price will roll over should county officials decided to renew the contract next year.