County emergency management demonstrates AlertSense mass-notification system; commission directs staff to pursue city rollout

At a Leavenworth City Commission study session, Leavenworth County Emergency Management demonstrated AlertSense (marketed as Connexus after acquisition) and commissioners indicated consensus to have city staff pursue implementation and training.

County emergency management said the system, commonly described as a modern reverse-9-1-1 product, can send a single message simultaneously to landlines, mobile phones (text/voice) and email and can target specific areas by drawing polygons, circles or freehand shapes on a map. Chuck Magaha, identified in the later agenda as the county emergency manager and introduced during the presentation, said the county has used the system since 2019 for boil orders, missing-children searches and evacuations and described a recent grass fire that forced the evacuation of about 25 homes.

The system’s features demonstrated to the commission included: an administrative console that can be delegated to city staff; simultaneous delivery by call/text/email; templates and scheduled sends; recipient-grouping for internal rosters (volunteers, staff, emergency responders); delivery and open/answer reporting; and a “donut” mapping option that can exclude an interior area (useful, presenters said, to avoid notifying law enforcement inside an active scene). Presenters said sign-up is opt-in for residents and provided a QR code and public sign-up flyer for outreach.

Magaha said administrators can see aggregated delivery results (how many messages were delivered or failed) but noted the system will not necessarily reveal reasons for failure beyond a failure flag. During the demo staff showed a mapped area that the vendor’s data indicated would reach roughly 4,263 potential contacts in that polygon through the system’s combined channels. A county presenter said internal reports can show whether an individual opened a message.

City staff and presenters discussed common practical points. The system relies on a county 9-1-1 data file that the vendor obtained and uses for voice overrides; administrators can add public directories, internal rosters, or keep messages internal. Presenters recommended the city primarily use the tool for city news and events and let the county continue to push emergency-weather alerts to avoid “crying wolf” and duplicative messages. The system is free to sign up for residents; the county representative said the county’s rollout materials and sign-up resources are already available.

Commissioners asked how many Leavenworth residents were signed up; county staff said they did not have a definitive citywide total on hand during the presentation but cited a sample figure of 1,477 sign-ups for one selected area. Presenters also said the county had used the system successfully to notify volunteers and spotters during weather events and training.

After the demonstration commissioners and staff discussed administrator training and who would be given rights to send city messages. Scott (city staff) and county presenters said they would train designated city staff. The presentation concluded with staff noting the system can be set up with the county as the parent account and the city as a child organization, giving local staff control of city messaging. Scott reported there was consensus for staff to pursue implementation and schedule training with county staff and the vendor.

The commission did not take a formal vote during the study session; the transcript records a staff direction to follow up with training and account setup pending city-staff decisions.

Alerts and public outreach materials mentioned during the presentation include Connexus (vendor branding after acquisition), AlertSense (product name in county materials), Fort Leavenworth (included in county 9-1-1 data), and local EOC contact information to appear on messages so recipients can verify authenticity.

Ending: City staff will work with county emergency management and vendor representatives to set administrative access, arrange training for designated city employees, and return to the commission with any implementation details or materials needed for a public sign-up campaign.