Groveland Twp.- Area residents will now have a means to be notified in case of local emergency following a change in procedures from the local cable provider.
Township Supervisor Bob DePalma was notified in September by Comcast it will no longer offer the service of ‘cable override? as a venue to disperse local emergency information. This system allowed public safety agencies to interrupt cable broadcast and announce local emergency information without having to go through the Emergency Alert System (EAS). Comcast, however, will continue to broadcast local emergency information they receive from the EAS.
To rectify this change Groveland along with Rose and Springfield townships have implemented a banner-scrolling override system on local cable channel 10.
‘If the weather looks severe just to the north along the Genesee County line and Oakland County does use the EAS then we have a way to notify residents via cable channel 10,? said DePalma. ‘Our fire chief, Steve McGee, can keep an eye on emergency situations and provide a banner override or crawl system message along the bottom the screen.?
DePalma said other community information including major accidents on township roads, fires or Amber alerts can also be broadcast via the crawl system.
At a cost of $1,400, Brandon Township-based Satellite Systems Inc. provided the software and hardware for the project which started on Nov. 18.