Ravenna works to better notify residents of boil, other alerts

Extremely cold weather and sustained sub-zero temperatures were the likely cause of a water main break on King Street in Ravenna on Feb. 4. A boil alert was issued and notification placards were delivered to homes in the affected area, but some residents said on social media that they didn’t get the alert in time. 

As per EPA regulations, the city is required to issue a Tier 1 public notification within 24 hours of discovering an issue that poses a risk to public health. City of Ravenna Service Director Tim Contant said the city follows all EPA regulations. It even goes beyond those regulations by offering the downloadable CivicReady app to send alerts straight to residents’ phones, but he said it’s difficult to get everyone to sign up for it.

CivicReady is a mass notification system for government use. 

“At this point in time, we’re in between notifying systems. Initially, we had CivicReady as our notification system, and that system basically has our residents sign up to be alerted for any boil alerts, weather alerts, road construction alerts, road closed alerts, stuff like that, but the problem we were having with that system is that we had quite low turnout for people that actually signed up for it,” Contant said. “At that point, I think it was 700 people that signed up in the city. That’s really a low turnout.”

The city of Ravenna is currently in the process of transitioning from CivicReady to the GOGov alert system in an effort to provide better service to a broader spectrum of residents. City of Ravenna IT Director Jonathan Bender said the city is working on building a new website that will include a QR code that users can scan to enroll in, and download, the new alert system. He hopes the QR code scanning feature will make it easier for residents to enroll, and easier for city officials to use, as well.  

“It offers us a bunch of cool features,” Bender said. “We'll be able to give them some maps and get the wards all mapped out, so we can send out ward alerts. We’ll be able to specify an area; you’ll be able to draw it. These are all things that we could do with CivicReady, but I don’t think they were as mature in their process as it is right now, that GOGov is. So, we’ll be able to give those kinds of enhanced things to the public. We’re working on integrations. We’re trying to make it as seamless as possible for people.” 

The GOGov alert system is planned to be rolled out by this summer.

Although city officials did everything they could to notify the public about the boil alert stemming from the water main break on Feb. 4, some residents didn’t get the alert and fed their animals untreated water. 

On Feb. 5, Stefanie Lyn shared a Facebook post from Amber Manes of Amber’s Ark Lost and Found Pets to the Portage County and Neighbors Facebook page. In the post, Manes wrote that she did not get the boil alert and subsequently gave unboiled tap water to her pet sugar gliders, Alvin and Quinn, which, she thinks, is what caused their death three hours later.

“Within three hours of changing their water they were both dead; they were hanging from the top of the cage, and they were dead,” Manes told The Portager. “I was like, why are they at the top of their cage, so I did research, and when sugar gliders are struggling to breathe from toxins, they climb up. I thought that was very strange. The only thing that was different was the water. So I called the water department just to see if there's been issues with the water around here, and the lady tells me, well, there was a social media post that there’s a boil alert. I will never use the sink water ever again. It never even crossed my mind that they would be dead from drinking the water from the sink that they’ve always had.”

Amber Manes' sugar gliders, Alvin and Quinn. [submitted photo].

A few replies on the Facebook post expressed concern about not getting the boil alert, while another said there were sick dogs from drinking contaminated water after the water main break. At least one reply said sugar gliders are sensitive animals and should only be fed filtered water.

Winter water main breaks are a common occurrence in northeast Ohio. Following the incident in Ravenna on Feb. 4, a water main broke at Cleveland Clinic Akron General on Feb. 7 that left the emergency room flooded and temporarily closed the hospital to general visitation.

Contant said inclement weather not only puts excess strain on city infrastructure, but it’s also challenging for workers who have to fix problems in sub-zero temperatures.

“We’re trying like heck to keep ahead of these water breaks with this weather,” Contant said. “It's really been a tough deal for our crew. They’ve been out for 36, 44 hours straight here, and the weather has really put a damper on our crews, and they’ve been really trying to keep up with them, and they’ve done a good job. I just hope it slows down. I hope this weather breaks; we really need it.”