Wintergreen / Stoney Creek
Nelson County, VA
From Curtis Sheets, Wintergreen Fire & Rescue Chief / Deputy Director of WPOA:
The single most frequent request from owners each year is the implementation of an improved method for communicating real-time information with the owners. Not coincidentally one of the most frequent requests from our Police and Fire/Rescue Department each year has been a way to contact owners immediately who may be in harms way. So many avenues have been explored to include community virtual blackboards and even drone sirens. We feel we have finally found the silver bullet.
WPOA has contracted with “Everbridge” incorporated to provide a mass-notification system. Soon you will receive an invitation to visit our Everbridge site to customize your notification information. The system will notify you in up to 17 different ways. If you want every member of your family to receive a text message, email, and phone message when a wildfire is headed your way, this system can do that. Unlike our mass email system Everbridge can make contact with all 4,000 owners in approximately 10 minutes, as compared to the several hour long wait we had been experiencing. You’re in control of how and when we will contact you. Any change you make to your information at the Everbridge website will be effective as soon as you press send.
All messages will begin with either “This is a priority message” or “This is a non-priority message” from the Wintergreen Property Owners Association. An example of a non-priority message may be “Due to a power outage, the Chestnut Springs Pool must remain closed today” while an example of a priority message may be “The National Weather Service is predicting 80-90 mph straight line winds this evening, all owners are encouraged to secure your property immediately.”
You get to determine which messages you receive, and you can make changes as often as you like. If you’re working in DC then you probably don’t care about pool closings at Wintergreen, but if you’re vacationing at your Wintergreen home for a week, then you may opt to turn on all non-priority messages.
If you aren’t tech savvy, that’s just fine. We have a plan for you. Soon all of the Fire/Rescue staff will be trained and able to walk you through the data entry. All you will need to do is stop by either station and ask for assistance. The Fire/Rescue staff (provided they aren’t on a 911 call) will enter your data for you. When we launch the system, all owners will be uploaded at once using the information we currently have on file. When you log in you will simply be verifying we have your info the way you want us to. Even if you don’t ever log on, you will still get emergency messages at the phone number and email address, which is currently on file.
This system is complex enough that any of our managers can open the site on a smart phone, place their finger on the map in the location of a hazard and tell the system to send an evacuation notice to all owners within 1.5 miles. In an instant, all owners in that area will know there’s a problem.
This is a very powerful tool, and certainly an enhancement to the service we provide as your property owners association. We’re proud of the work our staff has done to find, tweak, and learn this system for you, and we hope you will be as pleased as we are.
