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The Tubac Fire Department has announced the local implementation of a growing national neighborhood alert system. Santa Cruz County is also participating.

Tubac Fire District is competing for a $10,000 Grant from Nixle  and requesting your help.

Follow up:

Nixle has announced they will be awarding three $10,000 grants to the top three First Responder Agencies that add the most public users to the Nixle System for public alerts before the end of the year. These funds would be used for educational purposes for training new Emergency Medical Technicians.  Tubac Fire District respectfully requests that you reach out to your neighbors and friends and tell them about Nixle.  You just have them go to www.nixle.com to register.

According to its website:

Nixle is a free service that allows you to receive trusted, up-to-the-minute, neighborhood information for where you live, work, visit - or for where your family and friends are located throughout the country.
You choose the information you want, for the locations you
want, from urgent public safety alerts to less time sensitive
advisories and community information.
You choose how you want to receive the information, whether
it is over your cell phone by text message, by email, or over
the web.
You stay connected to what is happening in the communities
and the locations that are relevant to you!
Registration is FREE, SIMPLE, and SECURE.

There are still some bugs to work out locally. Because of our rural roads with inaccurate mapping, some residents' addresses may not be in the system. For dealing with our local situation, see the Local Instructions below.

To learn more about and sign up for this new community communication system, go to Nixle's website at http://www.nixle.com/about_consumer.html.

Local Instructions

Nixle records your location (you may input several) in order to direct the appropriate messages to you. If your address is not on record, you may have to put in an intersection. In some parts of Rio Rico, for example, you may have to put in false intersection, because so many roads are misnamed, some do not exist, and existing ones are not recorded.

We have received some reports that address are not recognized by Nixle as a valid address.  This is due to how Nixle uses Google Earth for address verification. This has challenges in the rural areas. Nixle is aware of this and working on it.  For now if anyone you know that has trouble with their address please have them put in 1360 W Frontage Rd, Rio Rico AZ 85648.  This is Tubac Fire Station 2 at Peck Canyon, which is recognized.

Go to Google Maps http://maps.google.com/maps , input your area (i.e. Rio Rico, AZ), choose the satellite view, and drag the map over your location. By panning and zooming, find the intersection of two named roads closest to you and enter those in the appropriate box on Nixle, even if the names are incorrect.

Michael Lindsey, Communications specialist for the Tubac Fire District reports that Nixle is working with Google to work on the maps program and also may implement its own proprietary system. Meanwhile, most of the alerts are applicable to large areas, and once you have established an account, you will welcome the timely information about conditions and events in our area.