Skip to page body Home About Community Living Doing Business Browse by Topic I Want to... Your Government

Citizens Alert

By Nov. 14, 2016 the Town of Blacksburg will have successfully transitioned its Blacksburg Alert notification system to a new shared communications platform called Citizens Alert. Both Montgomery County and the Town of Christiansburg made the move to Citizens Alert in earlier this year.

From a public safety standpoint Montgomery County and the two towns have long worked together during times of crisis. The opening of a new regional 911 center in July consolidated county-wide emergency dispatching and Citizens Alert is the next step necessary to ensure that residents county- wide are notified in a timely and coordinated manner.

Citizens Alert will help both the Town of Blacksburg and county better communicate with residents and businesses about a variety of events, ranging from severe weather, fires, floods and other emergencies to more routine announcements typically received by Blacksburg Alert. These notifications include such things as road closures, recreation and events, trash collection, and more.

Urgent messages will be sent to Blacksburg residents through their preferred methods, whether it is a cell phone, text, home phone, email, or any combination. Non-urgent messages will be sent by email only. Current subscribers of Blacksburg Alert will receive alerts throughout the month of October directing them to enroll in Citizens Alert. Blacksburg Alert service will expire on Nov. 14 when Citizens Alert goes live in Blacksburg.

Residents are encouraged to sign up for Citizens Alert and learn more about the program at www.blacksburg.gov/citizensalert.