W.A.R.N. Selected by Wood County
Parkersburg – Wood County commissioners authorized Emergency Services Director, Ed Hupp, to select W.A.R.N. (Wide Area Rapid Notification) after reviewing proposals from several other mass notification companies.
Wood County did not renew its contract with Community Alert Network (C.A.N.) about a year ago after several attempts to activate the notification system for a test alert failed.
W.A.R.N. is already in place in 15 counties in West Virginia and is on a state contract bid.
Hupp said the other proposals received were significantly higher in cost and were out-of-state firms. (W.A.R.N. has a significant presence in Charleston, WV where one of its sales and customer support divisions is located.)
“I do think this is an important tool for emergency services to have here and it’s probably been too long that we haven’t had something in place,” Commissioner Rick Modesitt said.
Officials noted the phone numbers for the emergency alert network are provided by local phone companies so anyone with a cell phone would have to voluntarily register their cell phone number iff they want to be notified through the W.A.R.N. system.
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