Opt-In Emergency Text Alerts

The Town of Brandon is launching an opt-in system for emergency text alerts.

In the past week and a half, we have seen many disruptions to our local roads, and the newengland511 and VT-ALERT systems are limited to “numbered” state and federal highways. A community member helpfully suggested more effective and proactive communication from the Town to the Townspeople. We have started posting road closures and reopenings on the town website http://www.townofbrandon.com (home page under “Notices”) and are updating that notice any time conditions change. But this still requires a person to make a choice to head to the town website before heading out in their car.

We have cobbled together a text alert system, opt-in, for true emergencies. We will not be using this to announce a new business opening, or youth sports sign-ups, or even to give you a warning of snow in the forecast when it’s winter in Vermont and you should fully be expecting snow. Those kinds of things will be on Front Porch Forum, the Chamber newsletter, etc.. We will use the text alert to let recipients know about matters of urgency such as road closures (and reopenings) and boil-water notices, to name two situations in which getting the word out immediately would be in the interests of public health or public safety.

To sign up to receive emergency notification text alerts from the Town of Brandon, please visit the following link and fill out the brief form. This is a new system and we hope it functions as designed but ask for your patience with it and with us. The form is here and you will be able to submit it whether or not you have a Google account:  https://forms.gle/dwyKB3imMLFEocFS9

Respectfully submitted,
Seth Hopkins, town manager & emergency management director
Call or text (802) 247-3300