SPRUCE PINE – A new phone notification system for the town of Spruce Pine will soon be in place.
The Spruce Pine Town Council, at its regular meeting Tuesday, Feb. 11, unanimously approved a decision to move forward with establishing a new phone notification system through a cloud telephone company called CallFire.
Town Finance Manager Crystal Young introduced the idea and said she compared the rates of two companies, with CallFire emerging as the cheaper of the two.
The town will pay CallFire $950 for an annual subscription that includes 30,000 minutes. Additional minutes can be added, and minutes that aren’t used will roll over to the next year.
The town can utilize the system to let town residents know about boil water advisories, give them information about utilities or alert them of events or developments within town limits.
With 30,000 minutes, Young estimates the town could notify all of the town’s customers about eight times a year.
Those living in town limits are encouraged to make sure they have provided the town with a valid contact phone number to receive the notification calls.
Young said the next step would be to send CallFire a comprehensive list of all of the town’s numbers that are on file. Invalid numbers will be flagged, and those customers will not receive notifications until they provide a working number.
The new system is capable of making up to 10,000 calls in a single minute, and it can be customized to call only specific segments of town customers.
The council unanimously agreed the new system would benefit the town. Councilmember James Acuff, who seconded council member Rocky Buchanan’s motion to approve the system, said it would be best to get the system in place as soon as possible.
“Let’s not wait on this,” Acuff said. “We’ve had too many issues. I think we should go ahead and get it done.”