Bradford City has an app for this — Savvy Citizen

City Administrator Chris Lucco explained.

“One of the recommendations in the (Strategic Management Plan) evaluation was that the city needs to improve community engagement and communication,” he said. “After looking around and doing some research, we came across the Savvy Citizen app.

“What we liked about it was that it was a one-way delivery system,” Lucco said. “Everyone knows that sometimes things get lost in comments and negativity on other forms of social media.”

When officials found the app, they applied for STMP funding, “part of the application was an application to implement Savvy Citizen,” he explained. “This was 90% funded by the grant.”

City officials can use it to communicate information to residents, such as street closures due to vehicle accidents or emergencies, weather emergencies, or even garbage collection changes due to holidays.

“We’re just getting started with the system,” Lucco said. “You can go into notifications and choose what you want to be notified about. If you just want traffic or emergencies, you can turn that on.”

There is also a community calendar section, in which the city has invited the Bradford Area Public Library, the Bradford YMCA and the Chamber of Commerce to participate “to publicize their major events so that people are aware of what’s going on in the city.” about various things. community,” he said.

Members of community organizations can contact the city and inquire about publicizing community events.

“We definitely encourage people to download the app,” Lucco said. “There is no cost. It has some controls so if it’s not an urgent notification, it won’t be sent out between 9pm and 9am.”

He added: “The concept is not to be intrusive, but to make people aware of what’s going on and inform people of emergencies.”

City department heads can access the app to upload information, and so can outside organizations such as the library and chamber.

“There are different levels of access,” he said. “My department heads can post without permission. If they decide to give access to employees, non-managerial employees need approval before sending a message.”

The app is already in use and notices have been posted in recent days about Congress Street closures due to the Bradford City Water Authority’s lead abatement project.

“When the weather gets better, we sign up with a QR code to download the app,” Lucco said, “and you can scan the code from the board.”

In the meantime, download the app for free from an app store and register with a personal account and address.