The Village of Norridge successfully launched the Connect-CTY service in late October of 2006.  The Village uses the notification service to contact residents and businesses about important information in our community, such as a road closures, utility problems, weather, and  emergency situations. The system has the ability to reach thousands of people in a matter of minutes.

 

“With the Connect-CTY service, we now have an easy-to-use, reliable tool that will allow us to make certain that community members will be accurately and quickly informed during emergency situations, even if they are not tuned into their radios or TVs,”  said Earl Field, President of the Village of Norridge. “But to take the Village’s emergency preparedness one step further, we encourage all residents to submit their cell phone and private landline numbers during the data drive. That way, we can immediately notify them with vital information during an unforeseen incident or emergency.”  

 

 

Listed below are some Frequently Asked Questions:

A:  Built exclusively to meet the needs of municipal officials, the Connect-CTY services enables the Village to use the service to communicate with residents about time-sensitive matters, such as unforseen events and emergencies, as well as to provide other community related information deemed to be in the public interest.

 

A:  The Connect-CTY service combines the power of the Internet with the pervasiveness of the telephone to give civic leaders an affordable and easy-to-use tool to reach out to their communities. Users record a voice message in their own voice using just a telephone or type a message to be sent to text receiving devices. In all, the multi-modal service helps officials reach out to residents and department heads via:  Voice messages to home phones, work phones, cell phones, and even e-mails.  

 

A:  The Connect-CTY system provides a comprehensive list of phone numbers collected from over 210 providers.  However, if the phone number is unlisted, it will not be included in our system.  Therefore, it is the homeowner’s responsibility to contact us with their information.  Call 708-583-5783 or hit the “Sign Up Now” icon on our home page.

 

A:  You may register up to three phone numbers.  However, unless there is an emergency, only the first phone number will be contacted.  In the event of an emergency, all numbers listed will be notified.  You may register your e-mail address too.

 

A:  Call recipients can opt-out; however, we strongly suggest that you do not do so.  The Connect-CTY service is used to send information that is time-sensitive and relevant to our residents.  Any resident that is eliminated will not be able to be contacted by the system. 

 

A:  The system will display “Village of Norridge” on the caller id display.

 

A:  For busy signals, the call will be repeated several times in an attempt to reach the user.  The same is true for no-answer and call-waiting.  If the phone is answered by a message recorder, the message will be left on the answering device.  If, after several attempts the call does not successfully go through, the system will stop attempting to call.

 

A:  No. NTI does not sell, lease, share, or rent personally identifiable information (names, addresses, phone numbers, etc.) to any companies or persons outside of NTI or NTI service providers.

 

A:  The NTI Group, Inc’s (NTI) mass notification engine supports the Connect-CTY system. NTI maintains access to tens of thousands of phone lines originating from multiple locations throughout the United States to ensure that its clients' communications are delivered quickly and efficiently. Moreover, NTI employs sophisticated call throttling logic to identify the proper schematics needed to deliver calls based upon whatever congestion the local telecommunications providers are experiencing at the moment calls are being attempted. This is a crucial point of differentiation versus both auto-dialers and other ASP/Software as a Service competitors who lack experience delivering time-based mass notifications.

 

Please accept the Village’s invitation to participate in the Connect-CTY service because if your number is unlisted, we will not be able to contact you in an emergency situation.  Participation is 100% free and completely voluntary.  Rest assured that your personal information will not be shared with anyone.  If you would like to register please click here.

 

If you have any questions, please contact us at 708-453-0800, extension 235.