By Mandy McFarland Enquirer Coordinator
BREMEN — Bremen residents could soon have a way to receive important alerts the instant they are sent out.
At their regular meeting last Monday, Jan. 25, the Bremen Town Council discussed possibly implementing a program called Nixle, a program that will deliver text messages to customers’ phones concerning things like tornado warnings and other natural disasters, road, fires, etc. A date has not been chosen, but Bremen Director of Operations Rich Martin and Bremen Police Chief Matthew Hassel plan to discuss the program and hope to implement it soon.

With Nixle, customers can sign up for free and can choose what types of notices they wish to receive, including emergency alerts (urgent information), advisories (non-urgent information), community information (day-to-day local happenings) and local traffic information. These notices would come straight from community agencies via text message, e-mail or the Nixle Web site,  www.nixle.com” www.nixle.com, and there is no charge to receive these messages. In choosing the type of notifications they want sent to them, customers can avoid receiving information that is not pertinent to them.
Once signed up, customers can enter additional addresses, like a work address, so they can keep up-to-date on what is happening near home, receive information on conditions that could affect their commute, etc.
According to Martin, Nixle is secure, and the company does not share customer information. That means no spam, no advertisements and no name soliciting. In addition, while customers can receive information via Nixle, only authorized agencies can send the information out.
Martin said that the county recently began using Nixle on a trial basis and that Nixle customers received their information the instant the alert went out.
Bremen has not started using Nixle yet, but those who would like to learn more can visit  www.nixle.com.