Fairbury to unveil new outage notification system next month

FAIRBURY - Seeking a more direct way to deliver important news to local residents, the city of Fairbury will unveil a new outage notification and reporting system next month.

The new system is called Outifi, designed to communicate updates about power outages, water line leaks, street closures, and other municipal updates directly to any of the people affected by these issues.

"I just felt like when that snowstorm hit last month, I got a lot of personal emails from people because we had no way to communicate to those people," electricity supervisor Nate Francis said. "I can't just go around and call these people. But I could, with this application, if we have a major storm, blot out the area [that's affected] and tell those people hey, it's going to be two days before we can get your power back on - in a major catastrophic situation. I just feel like this gets the city of Fairbury up with the coming generation, and is a better way to communicate with the customers." 

A plan to adopt the system as a pilot program was presented to and approved by the Fairbury city council in December. Francis says this is a way to bring Fairbury up to speed with more modern communication methods, plus ease the existing burden on dispatchers.

"When we get an outage call, dispatch gets the call, and then they call the guy that’s on call. If there’s a major outage, a major snowstorm, a major circuit that’s out, the city office or dispatch receives hundreds of phone calls. And they really don’t actually answer every single one of those phone calls," Francis said at the council meeting in December. "So this is AI technology – they can turn on this application, and the customer would see the notification saying there’s an outage in your area. It prompts them to leave a message – we want them to leave a message – so we can get all that information. Sometimes it’s hard to get that information from dispatch, because, again, they don’t answer every single phone call."

Francis said it's essential the city receives updated contact information from residents before platform can go live, otherwise the data Outifi gathers will be less helpful both to the city and its residents.

"Once we have their information and their phone number, there will be an outage map on our website that plots the point of where that phone number is related to that address, so the customers can then go on the website and see where the outages are at in their area. This helps us too, because we can go in and access that information as well," Francis said.

Aside from power outages, the system can also be used to provide updates about things like water leaks, snow emergencies, and trash scheduling, alerting only the people in the affected area. The program will also map out areas affected by planned outages, not just emergencies. And in emergencies, customers can specify what exactly the problem is, meaning they could move up a priority list if they are enduring a true crisis.  

To begin receiving updates for this system, text the word START to 402-729-3748, or scan the QR code here. If you already have a cell phone number on file with the city of Fairbury, you will automatically be enrolled in the new system.

You can also drop off a form with your information at the city offices - but those spaces will be closed this Friday and Monday as Fairbury prepares to unveil its new city headquarters, right across the street from the current home base, later this month.