Pick up your phone, the mayor's calling

Pick up the phone about 1 p.m. today if you live in Inverness. Mayor Jack Tatooles has something to tell you.

The village is starting something new -- it's now a part of Connect-CTY service, a new city-to-resident notification system.

It allows village officials to send and track personalized voice messages to thousands of residents when information needs to get out.

"This is an excellent communication tool for us to get time-sensitive information out to residents," Village Administrator Curt Carver said.

Today about 1 p.m., Tatooles will be on the other line of the first test call for this system. It will encourage residents to go online and update their preferred phone numbers.

The cost to the village for one year is $2.50 a household for unlimited use, or about $6,000, Carver said.

"To be able to have this at $2.50 a household is pretty economical," he said.

Besides being able to send alerts to the entire community, messages can target specific areas of Inverness and also can be sent by e-mail.

While the system is still somewhat new, it's also being used in Barrington, Barrington Hills, Lincolnshire, Vernon Hills, Grayslake and Kildeer.

Visit villageofinverness.org for more information.