Huntington seeking residents to sign up for new emergency communications system

The Town of Huntington has a new emergency communication system and needs residents to sign up to be included in it.

Town Supervisor Ed Smyth said the town is asking residents to provide their contact information to the town so it can be added to the new database, which, town officials said, has tens of thousands fewer names in it than the previous system.

The town's contract with the previous vendor, OnSolve/CodeRED, ended in 2024, town officials said. In August of that year, town officials approved an annual contract with Lyme Computer Systems/Lyme Technology Solutions to serve as its emergency communication system. However, Smyth said, OnSolve/CodeRED declined to share residents' data over privacy concerns.

“We don’t own that company’s database with the phone numbers,” Smyth said.

So the town posted an online notice to alert residents and encourage them to sign up. "Due to a new improved vendor, we need you to repopulate the town's communications database," it reads. 

“If anybody wants alerts from the town, they have to let us know,” Smyth told Newsday. 

In addition to emergency information, the new system will allow residents to choose if they want to be notified about road closures, weather updates and community events, Smyth said.

Residents also will have the option to choose how they will be contacted: text, phone call or email.

Huntington residents will still receive emergency alert calls from Suffolk County, regardless of their participation in the new system.

Because the new service allows information to be delivered on nonemergencies — things such as road closures, parades and other public service announcements — “It’s for that reason we have to have people opting in,” Smyth said.

The town's contract with Lyme Computer Systems/Lyme Technology Solutions is for five years at $41,864 annually, according to a town board resolution.

Town spokeswoman Christine Geed said the new system is known as RAVE/Smart911 and is the same one Suffolk County uses to contact residents.

Geed said when residents initially signed up for OnSolve/CodeRED, they had the option to decline having their information shared. “If they checked the box, that meant OnSolve was not able to transfer those names and addresses back over to the town,” Geed said.

The previous system had 90,000 phone numbers. Geed said only 900 phone numbers were able to be migrated to the new system.

“We want all of our residents to sign up,” Geed said. “Weather emergencies have become more of a big deal around here than ever before; the weather is changing; the storms are becoming much more severe, so we really want to have better, more capable resources to contact our residents in emergencies.”

For more information or to sign up, go to huntingtonny.gov.