Mass Notification System - signed up?

Have you signed up yet for the City of Woodstock One-Click Mass Notification System (MNS)?

If you would like to read information about the notification system and then to sign up to receive these notifications, you can do so through the link on the City website homepage. Go to www.woodstockil.gov/ and click on the link there.

Information on the City's website indicates that this system will be used for messages "with specific information about time-sensitive or common-interest issues such as emergencies and local community matters." I recall one City Council member's asking if non-emergency messages about (was it leaf pick-up or Christmas tree pick-up?) would be broadcast.

I don't remember that "local community matters" were approved by the City Council for the MNS. Will we get phone messages about the Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony and Groundhog Day? Let's hope not.

When the MNS was discussed at a City Council meeting, it was mentioned that residents' published phone numbers would be entered into the system. The System's announcement on the City website indicates that the City will create a database of published phone numbers. When I registered today, I wondered how to locate that entry and then edit or supplement any existing information. There may be a way to do that, but I didn't find it.

So I proceeded with my registration, hoping that my own entry will be combined with any existing entry automatically created by the City with its vendor for the system and that I won't receive duplicate calls.

After entering all my contact information, I wanted to return to the City's homepage and looked for a link on the final page to do so. Nothing there provides an easy one-click return, not even the City's logo at the top of the page.

It would be nice if the final page contained a link back to the City's homepage.

Would the crime spree on East Calhoun Street on November 17-18 have qualified for the System? Can you just picture residents, sitting in their homes and watching TV, armed to the teeth?

Pass the AK-47, Mom, and the popcorn, too.