RUMFORD — The town is considering establishing its own emergency notification system.

Town Manager George O’Keefe said, “We’ve been looking at notification systems prior to the (Dec. 10) incident with the brown snow at the mill. That certainly made it quite clear that this was something that we needed to consider on a broader level.”

He told the Select Board on Dec. 19 that the town has the ability to request an emergency notification to be sent to cell phones as an emergency alert which has to get handled by the State of Maine and goes through the Oxford County Regional Communication Center. “So we have the ability to notify citizens in the event of an extreme or extraordinary emergency that we believe is going to affect life, health or huge quantities of property.”

O’Keefe said, “So I think the first thing for people to understand is the ability of the town to request an emergency notification to people’s cell phones exists, and it was in fact utilized this year in Rumford for the incident in Rumford Point in November.”

Back on Nov. 5, Billy Morvent, 59, Rumford, is accused of firing several gunshots in the Rumford Corner Village area before allegedly crashing his car into a home at 61 State Route 232 and setting the building on fire, Rumford police said.

Morvent then led law enforcement officers on an extensive search, and officers eventually found him with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, officials said.

The incident led Rumford police to issue a shelter-in-place in the area, and a family lost its home in the fire.

O’Keefe said the first thing is for citizens to understand that in an extreme event, they already have that kind of coverage.

“Myself, the police chief and the fire chief had already been looking at the next level down of urgency which was an urgent or significant alert of a matter of public concern,” said O’Keefe.

“However, this is at a higher level of concern that what we would post on the Facebook page but at a level of lower concern than what would be justified for an emergency alert through the state.”

He said this particular proposal is actually the second vendor that we asked for a proposal from. “This first one we felt was not a good fit and we had looked at that I think in August or

September and came to the conclusion that that was not the right fit and start looking at another one.”

Fire chief Chris Reed, also the town EMA director, talked about the incident on Rt. 232 in November. “The system is really slow and broken with the state…I have to specifically state what I once said to the county, the county to the state, and then it’s executed. The state also has what they call fencing. So it doesn’t say I just wanted the area of 232 or Rumford Point to be notified. Anybody who drove through it to be notified to stay out of the area, they could do that. We would also be able to do that on that notification.”

Reed said the benefit of Rumford having a notification is that it’s quicker. So it also allows Tony (Milligan, police chief) and I to do it on the street. Residents can also sign up for the app and get real-time information. So I do think it’s worth looking at, worth funding it.”

He said he approached Rumford Power to see if they would be willing to offset some cost. “That is definitely a possibility. I have a meeting with them to possibly do that. I spoke to George (O’Keefe), and I would like to approach ND Paper, Rumford Power and Brookfield to help offset the cost because in theory, they’re the bulk of drivers to move people or to alert people. So I would like to do that as well but I don’t think that should hold up the funding line. If we get it, I think it would be great.”

O’Keefe said, “To be clear, our plan right now, and I’ve suggested asking for three years. We believe we can get this funded for the next three years at no cost to the town. That’s the goal between myself, the fire chief and the police chief is the three of us will work with the entities involved to seek a solution for funding that involves no cost to the town for the next three years.

Asked about examples when this could be used, Reed said, “Let’s say there’s a major vehicle accident on Rt. 2. I can log on to the system and fence that area off. Anybody who drives past that cell phone tower is going to get an alert saying there’s an emergency/bad accident on Rt. 2, seek an alternate route. That’s just an example that the system can do for you in real time, unlike the county to the county to the state to the on-duty guy and then it goes out. So in real time, it would be much faster.”

Select Board chair Chris Brennick made a motion, approved 5-0 by the board, to move ahead with this notification system, contingent upon funding from outside the town of Rumford.

“If it doesn’t get sponsorship, then we need to go through the normal process of adding it to the budget which means going in front of the Finance Committee,” said Brennick.