March 28, 2024
Local News | Bureau County Republican


Local News

Stay in the know with BCR Alerts

WYANET — The Bureau County Republican’s instant messaging service — BCR Alerts — has another new fan.

On Monday, the village of Wyanet signed up with the service to provide information to village residents. BCR Alerts provides breaking news updates and other area information as either a text or email message to subscribers.

Two days later, there was a water main break in Wyanet.

“We used it to notify residents of the low water pressure in the tower, and on one street, residents were under a boil order,” said Wyanet Village Clerk Shelley Teske.

Before signing up with BCR Alerts, the village would have had no options other than putting a notice on the radio and going door to door leaving notes on each affected house.

Teske said the village still took those steps because there weren’t many residents who had signed up to receive the notices, but it was very convenient to be able to send out the information through BCR Alerts.

Teske said people are hearing about the service, and the number of residents signed up has doubled since the water main break. She said there were already 41 residents who had signed up as of Thursday morning.

“We’re very pleased,” Teske said. “It’s good to be able to communicate with residents faster, especially in emergencies.”

To sign up to receive updates through BCR Alerts, go to www.bcrnews.com. On the bottom right, under Quick Links, click on BCR Alerts to register.

There are many different sources of information available.

Users can choose among receiving breaking news and Amber Alerts; severe weather advisories and warnings for Bureau County; the local weather forecast; school closings, late starts or early dismissals; information regarding sporting events and other school activities; or specials from area restaurants and new listing notifications from area realtors.

Users can also sign up to receive the BCR Briefs, an email including news briefs, weather forecasts, death notices and more via email Tuesday through Saturday.

Information is available from almost all of the schools in the county plus several sports leagues, organizations, towns and preschools.

If your municipality or organization could benefit from the BCR Alert system, contact BCR Associate Editor Rita Roberts at 815-875-4461, ext. 227.

Comment on this story at www.bcrnews.com.