Honeywell Alert System Comes to Jefferson

and its residents will be more prepared in the event of an emergency in town with the release of the Honeywell Instant Alert system for all residents. The system is free to all residents, and requires registration, which can be reached by clicking here.

“We want residents to realize that this is a different system than the Honeywell system the school district uses,” said Ed Mangold, deputy Office of Emergency Management (OEM) coordinator. “We couldn’t tap into the school’s system because they have confidential information about students that we can’t have access to.”

The town’s Honeywell system has the ability to send phone calls, text messages and emails, and will use all of them for the appropriate circumstances.

“We want to maintain the integrity of the system, so we want people to know that we won’t be making phone calls unless the event is a true emergency,” Mangold said. “People need to know that if the phone rings and it says Jefferson Township, there’s a good reason for that call.”

Residents can also sign up for emails for reminders about town recreational events, and other nonurgent happenings.

Mangold also noted that the system can perform geocasting.

“For example, if there’s a water main break in Lake Shawnee, we can set up the system to only call residents that live in Lake Shawnee and let them know what is going on,” he said.

The township will also set up groups within the system. For example, a group of town hall employees is set up, so that if town hall is on a delayed opening due to bad weather, the system will notify the employees. This will replace the phone chain method the employees used to use.

Both fire departments and rescue squads will have groups set up as well, so they can be notified of upcoming drills or events.

The system, which is free to residents, will cost the township $11,000 per year for the first three years. After three years, the township will negotiate a new contract with the company.

“Considering we have about 8,000 homes and businesses in town that will use this, we thought that was a very good price,” Mangold said. “It will allow us to help out residents much more than we could have in the past.”

The township will use the school's Honeywell system to send an email this week urging residents to sign up for the township system.

Residents who do not have access to a computer may call town hall at 973-697-1500 for help in getting their Honeywell account set up.