Warren County Emergency Management plans to implement a mass notification system that would give a heads-up to every cellphone user in the county.

Emergency Management Director Ronnie Pearson said the county uses the Bowling Green Police Department’s mass notification system when it needs to get a message to county residents.

The system works by sending an automated message to every landline telephone in its database in a specified area, he said, noting that the database is not exclusively composed of residences in the city limits.

“Unfortunately, that system is beginning to be somewhat antiquated because people are dropping home phones and moving to cellphones,” he said.

BGPD spokesman Officer Ronnie Ward said the department’s system is mainly used for internal communication.

For about a year, Emergency Management has been looking at the possibility of a more up-to-date system, Pearson said.

Pearson wants a system that allows Emergency Management to send notifications via text, he said.

“Most everybody is carrying a cellphone,” he said. “Texting is a way of life, but there are older citizens who have flip phones that might not have texting.”

The system would not rely on a database, Pearson said.

Instead, it would send text information via cell towers, making it possible to send warnings to the cellphones of anyone in the county at the time, regardless of whether they live in Warren County.

In addition, the ideal notification system would also be able to spread messages via email and phone calls.

“We want it to do all of the above,” he said.

In trying to determine what a local notification system needs, Pearson asked other emergency management directors for advice, including Robert Palmer, director of Simpson County Emergency Management.

Palmer said Simpson County’s system calls, texts or sends emails to everyone who has signed up for the notifications.

While that system has been effective, Palmer said he’s also looking at the possibility of implementing a system that sends messages to every cellphone in the county.

“I think most of the emergency managements are looking at technology like this to get the word out,” he said. “It’s a tool we would all like to have in our toolbox.”

The cost of mass notification systems depends on the population of the covered area, Pearson said, adding he expects one serving the Warren County area to cost $20,000 to $50,000 a year.

Pearson said he’s uncertain how the system would be funded but suspects it would be an annual general fund expenditure.

Pearson said at Friday’s Warren County Fiscal Court meeting that Emergency Management was nearing the end of the process of finalizing a price structure for the system, as well as its capabilities.

After the meeting, Judge-Executive Mike Buchanon said the system Pearson is proposing would be an efficient way to let residents know of any emergencies.

“Almost everybody carries one of these,” Buchanon said, holding up his cellphone, “and those people who don’t are probably in a room with someone who does and this will allow us to contact everyone and alert them to any type of oncoming problem or any type of disaster within their area they need to be notified about.”

While the county will still maintain outdoor warning sirens, the mass notification system will be an extra layer of security, Buchanon said.

“I’m excited to hear all the final details and what type of arrangement that we have worked out on the contracts and look forward to adding that to our emergency management and hazard mitigation efforts here,” he said.

Pearson is still in the process of finding a system and making sure local cell towers could handle the amount of traffic the system would use, but he said he hopes to have a system chosen by July and the system in place by September or October.

– Follow reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdailynews.com.