The town is hoping to engage residents on a more everyday basis through a new communications system launching in the next week or so, which First Selectman Peggy Lyons says will allow people to stay up to date on specific areas or aspects of the town without having to manually navigate websites or parse through emails.

Though Madison will continue emergency updates through the same channels it has in the past, Lyons said that she has seen a need and a desire by residents to stay informed about events that affect them or have to do with their specific interests, particularly when they can get those updates by phone.

“We’re kind of working through what information we want to include, because I just feel like right now, our system is just too many choices,” Lyons said.

Using an app and platform made by a company called Everbridge, to which Lyons said the town had subscribed in the past, residents will be able to sign up for regular updates on areas they are interested in, whether that is a broad category like “beaches,” or a specific board or commission, the way the town website already tries to do.

The pandemic has shown how important it is to disseminate accurate information, and how dependent many people are on local sources as they navigate the swiftly shifting new world, according to Lyons.

Lyons said she received very positive feedback on her regular “First Selectwoman Updates,” which went out by email as well as through automated phonecalls through the first few months of the pandemic, sometimes as often as three times a week.

“What we realized is we were really limited about how we could reach people just using email. A lot of people loved getting phonecalls, and listening to the phonecalls, or getting text alerts,” Lyons said.

Updates through the app can also be filtered by very specific geographic locations, theoretically allowing people to only receive information on nearby events, like road work in their neighborhood, according to Lyons, though residents don’t have to enter this information if they are concerned about privacy.

The town is working to see if it is possible for residents to get all their updates by voice or by text message directly to their phones, though not all of that has been fully explored, Lyons said. Likely town departments will be coming up with their own specific plans as far as when, how, and what they communicate, according to Lyons.

“We’re just trying to figure out those features right now, and how to make it work most effectively,” she said.

For her automated phonecalls, Lyons said she had simply recorded herself reading the update, which is something she said she’s willing to continue doing, but might not work for every kind of update.

Because the town shares its IT services with the school district, which has been scrambling to implement and maintain a hybrid remote learning plan for thousands of students since March, there has been a delay in rolling out the new system, Lyons said.

Residents can sign up right now, and Lyons said that in the next couple weeks the town will begin a more “robust” rollout.

For more information or for step-by-step instructions on how to sign up for the new alerts, visit www.madisonct.org/1073/Alerts.