A system designed to provide information about emergency weather, community events, emergency situations and other items of interest began operation on Friday.

The City of Guymon Notification System will allow individuals to sign up to receive e-mail and text messages from a variety of lists that will be maintained by city officials. The city has partnered with the Emergency E-mail Network to provide this free service to the residences of the area.

"Our system will e-mail alert messages as well as send cell phone text messages based on emergency information aggregated from federal government agencies and public safety emergency groups such as the National Weather Service, U.S. Geological Service, the Red Cross and other emergency authorities," said Ted Graham, interim city manager. "Members of the public can go to our Website at www.guymonok.org to sign up to receive alerts through a confidential database system based on their needs and desire for information. When an emergency situation arises, our system transmits public safety agencies' messages to pagers, cell phones and personal computers of subscribers. "In addition, if they just want to keep up on events in the city, they can sign up to receive that information, as well."

According to Graham, one of the benefits of this system will be directly linking to the National Weather Service so the moment they issue a weather warning for the area, those who subscribe can be immediately notified.

"This system will allow the city departments to provide information to the public in an extremely fast and efficient manner," Graham said. "Public works can notify people when there is an issue with the water like at the end of last year when we lost pressure for while, and the police and fire departments can send out notifications when they have things that they need to know." Police Chief Eddie Adamson said the police department would use the system for two main reasins - sex offender registry notification and public information.

"One of the things we are going to be using the system for is to notify the public of sex offenders who register with the Guymon Police Department," Adamson said. "While the person is in the office registering with the department, Lt. Jason Bond will be sending out a notification about it to those who subscribe to the list. "We will also be using it to provide community information about the programs at the department."

Guymon Fire Chief Clark Purdy said the department would be able to notify the public of burn bans and fire safety programs.

Citizens are encouraged to go to the city website at www.guymonok.org to sign up for the information they want to receive using the new system.

In operation since 1999, the Emergency Email Network is the largest private provider of official emergency preparedness communications in the nation, operating a free public service email network.

OUR SIGNUP PAGE FOR THE NOTIFICATION SYSTEM IS HERE