MOULTRIE — In January of last year, Colquitt County implemented CodeRed, a high-speed emergency mass notification system provided by OnSolve but, after a year, are residents onboard yet?

Emergency Management Director Justin Cox said this week that at least 1,500 residents are.

The CodeRed mass notification system sends telephone calls, text messages, emails and posts to social media to alert subscribers about emergency situations in the area that may affect them.

Cox said in a press release from the County last year, “We anticipate using the system to notify residents of severe weather and other public safety issues affecting our communities.”

When asked to weigh-in on The Observer’s Facebook page about the CodeRed system, the overall response was in the positive with comments like “great service,” “very helpful,” and “really helpful during our last storm.”

Selina Bivins posted, “I have it. It works great in that it pinpoints MY location. Not just that Moultrie has a strong thunderstorm moving through.”

Tommie Beth Willis also posted a comment, “Thankful the County invested in it for our community! Great for informing you about bad weather day and night (especially good after the sun goes down and you can’t see the weather). Plus you can set it to other locations where family and friends live.”

However, at January’s commission meeting, when the $7,812 invoice from OnSolve for the notification system was up for approval, it drew some discussion among the commissioners.

“It is something that people sign up for, voluntarily. It’s not a requirement. So, if you want to be listed on the CodeRed service, you sign up for it. There is a hosting fee, this is what this is. A one-time, annual fee to host the service,” explained County Administrator Chas Cannon.

He also added that the commissioners had approved it a couple of years ago and that this would be a one-time fee every year.

Commissioner Barbara Jelks asked how many people had signed up for it. Discussion among the county staff resulted in an estimate of 1,200 to 1,500.

Much later, when asked by The Observer, Cox said 1,500 people had signed up through the county’s website, but he said some others may have downloaded the CodeRed app and he doesn’t have figures for the app.

“I just wonder if we’ve done enough to promote it,” Jelks said.

Cannon suggested that they could send the information out in tax notices or in the monthly solid waste bills.

David Zeanah, finance director, said that the undercurrent that he was hearing was that people were hesitant to sign up because they were afraid that they would be receiving a lot of texts from the system.

“Yeah, but you get to choose which categories you receive. If you only want to hear about hurricanes, you can,” said Denver Braswell, commission chairman, and Cannon added that there was a drop-down menu.

Residents of Colquitt County can sign up for the free CodeRed alert system on the County’s website.