County phone alert system could return

McCOOK, Neb. — In late 2010, Red Willow County started using “CodeRED,” a warning system to alert residents by phone of approaching bad weather or to emergency messages. It was funded with a federal grant that ran out three years later, and neither the county nor the City of McCook carried it forward when funding ($7,500-$10,320 a year) would have had to have been provided locally.

Now, Red Willow County Sheriff Alan Kotschwar wants to reinstate a warning system, and approached county commissioners about “AlertSense,” of Boise, Idaho, during their weekly meeting Monday morning.

The sheriff said that he budgeted $5,000 for just such a system in the 2017-2018 budget for Emergency Management (of which he is the director). AlertSense is priced at $4,900 a year, he said.

The alert system programming would require no additional staffing within Emergency Management.

Kotschwar said weather alerts will be local — those generated for Southwest Nebraska by the National Weather Service in Goodland, Kan. Other alerts, such as road conditions or closings, flooding or public safety concerns, will also be local.

At their meeting on Nov. 27, commissioners plan to continue discussion of AlertSense after county attorney Paul Wood studies the contract with AlertSense Inc. and its requirements regarding the county’s liability insurance.

———

Following a public hearing, commissioners approved and adopted the county’s one- and six-year road plans.

The one-year plan includes these possible projects: Project 178, millings and armor coating, to tie together Highway 83 and the county road north of McCook’s East 11 Street; Project 182, install a corrugated metal pipe or extend a concrete box culvert, about half-way between McCook and Indianola; Project 183, replace a bridge with a new concrete box culvert near Lebanon; and, a new project, Project 184, twin 8 1/2-foot by 40-foot corrugated metal pipes to replace a bridge near Danbury.

The six-year plan includes two near projects: Project 185, two new 8 1/2-foot corrugated metal pipes south of McCook; and Project 186, twin 9x40-foot corrugated metal pipes northwest of Bartley.

Commissioners removed Project 143 — five inches of asphalt on the county road that passes south of the city’s water treatment plans —from the six-year plan because it was started as a federal aid project about 10 years ago, and that federal funding is no longer available.