WINTER PARK, Fla., Sept. 6 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The City of Winter Park (a nationally recognized Silver Circle and National Merit Award winner) and Rollins College have partnered on an interactive community emergency alert system dubbed OUTREACH. The system will provide high-speed notification through multiple communication infrastructures including cell phones, computers and outdoor sirens/speakers.

"The City of Winter Park realizes the importance of communication, especially in a crisis situation, and has brought emergency notification to a higher level," said Winter Park Mayor David C. Strong. "That is why we are implementing Outreach, the city's new comprehensive system to notify city residents during various emergency situations."

Throughout their history, the city and the college have enjoyed a strong relationship. Rollins was founded in 1885 and Winter Park was chartered two years later. In recent years, their unique town-gown relationship has resulted in the successful completion of a number of mutually-beneficial projects (see background below).

The city will own and operate the OUTREACH emergency alert system, which will cost approximately $130,000. Rollins College is providing the city with a three-year, interest-free loan to make the system a reality. Rollins is also purchasing an additional siren/speaker which will be placed on campus to enhance communication. Authorized college personnel will be able to request that college-specific messages be broadcast over this speaker to the campus community.

"Tornadoes passing through Central Florida in February of this year and the Virginia Tech tragedy have underscored the importance of having in place a system that can quickly reach the members of our shared communities," said Rollins College President Lewis Duncan.

Winter Park Fire Chief Jim White describes OUTREACH as "one of the most interactive and robust community-wide emergency alerting networks in the country."

Here are some features of the revolutionary new system: -- The Outreach network will combine the convenience of electronic devices many of us have come to turn to for information with the proven alerting benefit of outdoor voice and siren devices. -- Using a network first established by the Federal government to communicate with troops in the field, Outreach will inform and interact with citizens in the event of a community emergency. -- The Outreach network will afford emergency management personnel and other leaders in Winter Park the ability to not only alert residents but interact with those citizens in need. Recipients of the emergency messages can respond via a touch tone phone about their individual situation (i.e. press 1 if your power is out, press 2 if you need medical assistance, press 3 if you need ice and water, etc.) -- Outreach can alert citizens through landline and cell phones, e-mail and text messaging, FM radio and pagers. For those who may not be close to or have access to these devices, communication can occur via outdoor warning sirens. -- As part of Outreach, these outdoor warning sirens will include the ability to announce voice messages when large groups of people need to be directed to seek shelter or evacuate a venue.

Two companies, Federal Signal and EMTEL(R), will provide the infrastructure and technology to make Outreach possible. It is expected that portions of the system, including text-messaging capabilities, will be operational by the end of October. Outreach is slated for complete functionality by the end of this year.

Background: Throughout their history, the City of Winter Park and Rollins College have enjoyed a strong relationship. Rollins was founded in 1885 and Winter Park was chartered two years later. In recent years, they have worked together in the following ways:

-- to enhance the character of downtown Winter Park's signature Park Avenue with the addition of the SunTrust Plaza, which brought a mixed- use office and retail complex that houses SunTrust Bank, Starbucks Coffee, Restoration Hardware and Gap, among others. The project includes a well-camouflaged and much-needed parking garage, which is used by Park Avenue shopping patrons as well as Rollins student and employees. -- to create Rollins' McKean Gateway, which provides the main entrance to the campus as well as the welcome feature at the south end of Park Avenue. For this project, Rollins College loaned the city $225,000 interest free for three years so that the city's revitalization of south Park Avenue, which included new traffic signals, landscaping, and a major re-bricking initiative, could be completed in coordination with the construction of the Gateway. -- to transform a city park into the Rollins College Stadium at Lake Island Park, funded through a joint partnership between the City of Winter Park, Rollins (and its benefactors), and the Winter Park Rotary Club. In this instance, an underdeveloped area of a city park was transformed into the home for the Rollins College Softball Team and a premier venue for the city to use in the off-season. Probably most importantly for the city, the softball field is within walking distance of the city's disadvantaged Westside neighborhood, and Rollins coaches provide free clinics to Westside children.

Founded in 1885, Rollins College is Florida's oldest recognized college, and is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of "America's best colleges." For more information about Rollins, visit http://www.rollins.edu/.

CONTACT: Clarissa Howard, City of Winter Park, +1-407-599-3428; Ann Marie
Varga of Rollins College, +1-407-646-2159

Web site: http://www.rollins.edu/