Dianne Stallings, Ruidoso News (New Mexico), a MediaNews Group Newspaper

To ensure the CodeRED emergency notification system includes all land-line telephones in the area, a special message will be sent to selected numbers on the Lincoln County reverse 911 system at 2 p.m. Friday.

County Manager Tom Stewart said Monday he learned that 1,264 land-line phones in the county are not properly located in the County’s CodeRED System.

The reverse system automatically dials telephones in selected areas or across the county to notify residents of disasters, evacuations or other emergency issues. CodeRED is the contractor for the service.

“A call to all registered, cell and land-line phones in the county today would generate 15,588 calls,” Stewart said. “So I believe it would be accurate to say that 8 percent need updated/accurate locations and those phones will receive the call on Oct. 7.”

“I have been advised that there are a variety of reasons for the inaccuracies in the CodeRED setup,” he wrote county commissioners in an e-mail memorandum.

“Consequently, latitude and longitude coordinates cannot be established for these phone lines. Our CodeRED contractor has identified these phones and a special message will be sent to these lines informing the citizens to go to our website to sign up for CodeRED and properly position the location of their phones and homes on the associated map.”

He wrote that he would appreciate everyone who is called to respond to the request to ensure proper location for their phones.

“This in no way effects our dispatch’s ability to locate 911 calls, only CodeRED’s data base to make reverse 911 calls,” he said.

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