Bay Alerts Upgrading to new System and Vendor

The Bay Alerts notification system provides 9-1-1 Central Dispatch with a fast and reliable system of communicating with Bay County residents. The system can provide emergency messaging via land line telephone, cell phone, text messaging, pager and email. Bay Alerts is fully integrated with NOAA, which allows for automatic weather alerts such as flooding, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and winter storms. Central Dispatch has also partnered with several other agencies and departments in an effort to increase the number of Bay Alerts subscribers. Over the past 12 months, 9-1-1 has sent approximately 2.8 million messages with Bay Alerts.

As a result of seeking continuous improvements and outgrowing the existing system, Bay County 9-1-1 has made the decision to not renew their contract with the current mass notification vendor. Following approval from the Bay County Board of Commissioners on July 14th, Central Dispatch will enter into an agreement with a new Bay Alerts vendor called RAVE. The new vendor will be capable of putting out alerts more reliably and with easier functionality for the system administrators. Along with many additional benefits that will allow users to select the types of alerts they want, the new systems will also integrate with the federal Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS), which is an internet-based capability Federal, State, territorial, tribal, and local authorities can use to issue critical weather alerts and warnings.

The Bay Alerts system will be offline for the next six to eight weeks, while the new mass notification system is put in place. We appreciate your patience and are certain that the new platform will better serve the citizens and first responders of Bay County. The Central Dispatch Facebook page will remain fully operational and will continue to provide alert notifications in the meantime.