Committee proposes an emergency messaging system: radios, mesh network and broadcast options

Castle ValleyMitigation Committee members on July 22 recommended adding a project to develop and implement an emergency messaging system that would work during power outages and help the town reach residents quickly during floods and other hazards.

Committee members discussed a range of delivery options: a low-power wide-area LoRa mesh network with neighborhood nodes, partnerships with local radio stations to broadcast emergency messages, distributed neighborhood radios for block supervisors, and simple megaphone/PA solutions for short-range alerting. The group emphasized designing the project to be technology-neutral in the plan language: develop and implement an emergency messaging systemwith bullet-pointed options and separate cost estimates for each option.

Members described operational models that combine neighborhood nodes and volunteer block supervisors (the existing RDAP/volunteer structure was cited) so that a few radios or megaphone-equipped vehicles could notify neighbors during an evacuation. The committee asked staff to include bullet-point options with order-of-magnitude costs and to estimate political viability and reach (for example, whether the system would be valley-wide or focused on neighborhood-level broadcasts).

Ending: Staff will prepare project language that lists communications options (LoRa mesh, radio broadcast partnerships, neighborhood-node radios/megaphones), provide cost ranges for each, and return for the committeeto refine before public review.