Oxford has initiated a new service that will allow city departments, such as the Division of Police and the fire and service departments, to communicate with the surrounding community by text, e-mail and using the Web.
Greg Yingling, assistant to the city's chief for technology, is responsible for Oxford's partnership with the service through a company called Nixle.
"We were trying to make a type of communication protocol that can be used to get information out for the student(s) and for the city of Oxford," said Yingling, who is also a graduate student at Miami University.
Nixle, which launched publically this year, performs the service for the city at no cost. In a tough economy when the city is trying to cut costs, Yingling said a free product was very attractive.
The city developed the project in May and tested and marketed it all summer, hoping to find this to be the right service.
"We had a marketing program basically just grassroots, made a couple fliers and put it in the walk about we did in the summer, and during the big (OPD pig) roast," Yingling said.
Oxford residents and Miami students received the first message last week, when Oxford sent out an advisory regarding street closings for Wednesday's Veterans Day Parade. However small and insignificant the message may have been, it was a large first step for the program, Yingling said.
"I think we are all just starting to find out about this," said Mayor Prue Dana, who just signed up for the e-mail service Wednesday. "This is one more thing that tells you what's going on."
Both Yingling and Dana emphasized that this service is applicable to both the city and students at Miami University.
"Students might be more interested in this in a weather situation," Dana said.
While Miami University's text messaging alert service is strictly for emergency situations, the city's text messaging service will also be available for community events and weather advisories in addition to emergencies.
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"If something bad happens, we're going to utilize the (service) to tell people what to do," Oxford Fire Chief John Detherage said.
Yingling stressed the city does not want to bombard people with text messages. When someone signs up for the free service he or she has the option of receiving emergency information or community events as well.
The program was recently added to the Oxford's Web site http://www.cityofoxford.org, according to Kim Newton, assistant to the city manager.
"(The Web site) tells you how to register and locally what it's all about," Dana said.
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