Town manager apologizes after 1 a.m. Code Red community alert; council to review emergency notification platform

Town Manager Sean M. Kimball apologized to the council and residents for a mistaken community alert that went out at 1 a.m. and said the town is investigating the cause and possible alternatives for its emergency-notification platform.

Kimball explained the town recently migrated from Code Red to a different platform (Scribe24/OnSolve) and that conversion issues have produced hiccups, including duplicative and missing entries in the database and an incorrect prompt in the message that indicated incorrectly that it was an emergency phone call for a specific resident. "I will, again, reiterate our apology for the 1AM call," Kimball said. "Clearly, the part at 1AM should not."

He described the call as a community alert (not an emergency alert) and said the town is still working with the vendor to identify what happened. Kimball said the town is exploring options, including the state-backed Everbridge system, and may change providers if the current platform proves unreliable.

Kimball advised residents that the new platform's public sign-up feature is not yet enabled and that, for now, people should contact the fire department or the town manager's office to update or remove their registration. He acknowledged that the conversion had left some residents duplicated in the database while others were unable to receive community alerts if they had previously opted only into emergency alerts.

Councilors pressed for clarity and ways for residents to confirm their subscription status; Kimball said staff fielded dozens of calls and that more communications and a possible platform change will be discussed in coming budget deliberations.