County Commission Chairman Mark Yarbrough said the website upgrade was necessary as a means to continue recruiting new industries, businesses, students and citizens. He added that the new look of the website would help give “the right impression” to those groups looking to locate to Limestone County.
“Limestone County is proud of our place in North Alabama, and we needed to upgrade our look and messaging to better tell our story,” Yarbrough said.
The county's new website is also more mobile-friendly as a growing number of Internet users continue to use their smartphones as much or more than traditional computers.
Smart911 improvements
The county's new website includes a link to Smart911, which allows users to create an individual safety profile containing safety information about themselves. Using a variety of fields, users can input information about themselves, family members, home, pets and vehicles. The confidential information would be displayed to dispatchers when the user calls 911.
“By allowing Limestone County citizens to create a private safety profile, the Smart911 system will give them the ability to opt-in to receive enhanced emergency notifications,” Yarbrough said. The system will give better response to situations from bad weather, missing children or health emergencies. It’s a really nice system and we’re glad to be able to provide this for Limestone County.”
All information in each profile is voluntary, and each household can determine what details are important, as each household is different and potential rescue needs will also vary. If a resident already has an account, he or she may log in to update preferences.
“We take great pride in providing the best available resources to enhance safety in our community,” said R.V. White, director of the county's E911 center. “By providing even more services through Smart911, we are giving citizens an easy way to communicate with us by managing all of their communication tools in one account.”
About Smart911
Smart911 is a national service available to dispatchers as a means to improve emergency response. In Alabama, Smart911 is also available in Autauga, Cullman, Dallas, Montgomery and Russell counties. Once a profile is created, the user will be reminded to update or confirm information every six months in order to ensure accurate information is being shared with first responders.
Smart911 has been adopted in 40 states and more than 1,500 municipalities. It has been credited with positively impacting emergency situations and saving lives across the U.S., including a missing child case in Arkansas, a heart attack victim in Tennessee and a man trapped in a house fire in Michigan.
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