Notifying Mineral Wells residents of an emergency or threatening weather situation will soon be just a phone call away.

City Council on Tuesday approved engaging the CodeRed Emergency Communications Network to place emergency calls to homes and businesses in the city. Council agreed to incorporate both components of CodeRed’s phone notification system at a cost of $15,000 annually, slightly under the $18,000 budgeted for such a system.

“We looked at several systems and we found none better than CodeRed,” Police Chief Mike McAllester told council in proposing approval of the Ormond Beach, Fla.-based company, represented Tuesday night by Brian Davis of BDA Consulting Group Inc. of Coppell, Texas.

McAllester said the City of Weatherford currently uses CodeRed for public notifications. “They have used it literally hundreds of times,” McAllester said.

Once in place, all landline phone numbers in the city’s 911 system will be uploaded to CodeRed’s call database for use in notifying the public of a variety of emergency or general public notifications such as a police or fire emergency, public works issues, road closures, evacuations and more. Calls can be localized to a specific area of town.

Residents can go to the company’s Web site and input cell phone numbers to receive notifications on their mobile devices, as well. In this component of the system, all 911 system numbers will automatically be included. Residents or businesses can choose to opt out of this notification system.

The second component is the weather alert system. In this system, any resident or business wanting to receive notification and warning calls will have to request it and provide their phone number or numbers to where they want to receive the notifications. Phone numbers will not automatically be included in this part of the system.

Opting out of one system or opting in for the other will typically be done online, though Councilwoman Margaret Colton expressed concerns about residents – especially older ones – who don’t have computers at home.

McAllester and Davis explained they might use public computers at Boyce Ditto Public Library or the Mineral Wells Senior Center, or city officials will look at providing a phone number people can call to put themselves in or out of the notification systems.

Davis said the weather notification system can provide residents with as much as a 15-minute advance warning of an approaching tornado, or warn of localized flooding. He said the system can be used to warn of severe thunderstorms. The weather notification system is tied to the National Weather Service.

McAllester said there will be as many as five people trained on the system locally and can trigger and direct the notification calls.

The system is capable of placing 1,000 calls per minute and 60,000 calls per hour, Davis said. The city does not have to purchase special equipment or dedicated phone lines.

Under the contract, the city will have 30,000 calling minutes – equalling about 60,000 connected calls averaging 30 seconds each – under the public notification component with unlimited weather notification minutes annually. Davis said if the city exceeds its 30,000 minutes, it will be billed an additional $1,000 and receive another 3,000 minutes. Shorter messages will increase the number of connected calls, while long notification messages would, of course, result in fewer connected calls under the contract. Calls are billed in six-second intervals.

“Most cities don’t exceed their minutes,” Davis said, adding that the city can monitor and manage its minutes.

Each time a notification goes out, the city will receive a full report on the calls made and minutes used, Davis said. The system is in use 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The system attempts to deliver the message up to three times to each number in the database.

The company’s Web site is www.coderedweb.net. Davis said the system could be available within 30 days of a signed contract with the city.

Davis said the company by contractural agreement does not sell or provide its phone lists to third parties.

In other business, council:

• Ratified approval of a ground lease at Mineral Wells Municipal Airport with Sendero Aircraft Management, LLC.

City Manager Lance Howerton presented council with a signed contract between the city and the company asking for council’s approval, which was approved by a 6-0 vote with Councilman Tommy Blissette absent.

The company plans to build an 80-by-100 hangar to house two corporate aircraft. The hangar will be to the north of the existing S-Tec hangar. The lease is for 20 years with two five-year options. The lease is $1,200 per year.

Howerton explained that for fire protection, an 8-inch line will have to be installed that the company will tie into. Howerton estimated the cost of the line installation at $20,000, and he said the city and Sendero Aircraft will negotiate how those costs will be shared. Sendero Aircraft will pay for its electrical and water utility connections.

Howerton said costs to the city will eventually be offset in ad valorem collections on the improvements and aircraft value. Councilman John Ritchie noted not only are Beechcraft KingAir and Cessna Citation plane expensive, “they will use a lot of fuel,” he said, meaning the city will additionally benefit from increased fuel sales at the airport.

• Approved a proposal by Richard Garvin to lease former city landfill site (former Progress landfill) off Farm-to-Market Road 2256 for use as livestock grazing. Garvin has offered to maintain the property and construct a $4,000 fence. He will lease the 49.5 acres for $100 per year.

• Extended for another three years the city’s juvenile curfew ordinance.

• Approved the reappointments of Leon Groves, Wes Ellis and Bob Sturdivant to terms on the Palo Pinto County Municipal Water District No. 1 Board of Directors; reappointments of Ray Madrigal and Kenneth Johnson to terms on the Mineral Wells Housing Authority Board of Directors; and City Clerk Juanita Formby as the governing body representative to the Local Firefighters Pension Board.