As chief technical officer of Xstream Mobile Solutions, a software maker of Alert and Safe, New Lenox resident Joseph Johns helped develop software that will alert residents through a cell phone text message to an impending emergency.
On Tuesday night, Johns presented software to the Village Board. The company donated the program, which normally costs about $20,000.
The program will allow residents to sign up on the village Web site for any alert ranging from a scheduled mosquito spraying to a tornado warning. The alert will be sent to cell phones through a text message. The only cost incurred for the service is the resident’s text message cost.
The company can transmit to 99.9 percent of the cell phone users nationwide, Johns said. Land lines calls are not included in the program.
“Most people have cell phones today and in an emergency, the first thing to go is the power and the phone lines,” Johns said.
The program will also help the village communicate with their emergency responders, Johns told village trustees.
The software is already in use by Will County and Lemont.
Residents’ information will be stored on the village’s server.