blevine@thestamfordtimes.com

STAMFORD — Many people have grown accustom to the automated evening phone call that interrupts dinner with family or a favorite T.V. show.

But last week, when thousands of city residents were phoned, a familiar voice was found on the other end.

"This is one of best ways to quickly notify residents in the event of a disaster," Malloy said.

Last Thursday, the city launched Connect-CTY, a service supplied by Blackboard Connect Inc. Nearly 80 percent of the calls placed were successful, said Bill Callion, director of public safety, health and welfare.

"The test went very well," Callion said. "Obviously you want a 100 percent success rate."

Callion said part of the reason the test did not have a complete success rate was because the city only has access to phone numbers, at homes and businesses, which are publicly available. Many people's phone numbers might have changed recently or might not be listed, Callion said.

Other examples of why the system was unable to connect was due to a busy signal, a hang up or a non-answer with no accompanying answering machine.

"Some people aren't home no matter what time you call them," he said.

Callion said the system not only has the ability to notify residents by phone, but by e-mail and text message as well. Residents whose numbers are not listed, or would like register their cell phone or other digital device, can doe so by visiting www.cityofstamford.org and clicking on the like that says, "Sign up now - services by Connect-CTY." For those who don't have Internet access, they can call 977-4153 to sign up.

Residents can register up to three phone numbers and two e-mail addresses.

"If residents did not receive the test call, I encourage them to register their contact information into the system's secure database," Malloy said.

Stamford is not the only city in southwestern Connecticut to implement an emergency notification system. Other cities, including Norwalk, New Canaan and Greenwich use reverse 911 systems to alert residents about planned and unforeseen public safety matters, according to a statement from the mayor's office.

Another local town that has put a reverse 911 system in place is Westport, which has had its system up and running since the beginning of the year.

According to Deputy Fire Chief Jonathan Gottfried, after a successful test, the system has been used once to alert residents about possible flood warnings.

In addition to natural disasters, the system in Westport can also be used to make public health announcements such as food recalls or flu notifications, Gottfried said.

Gottfried said their system will be utilized on a very local level to the point they will call only residents which could be affected by a particular emergency.

"The way I look at it, our history tends to be coastal flooding, power lines down, trees down, maybe hazardous materials along the interstate. It's more localized. These aren't emergencies that necessarily affect the whole town," Gottfried said.

In Stamford, the city's notification system will be used for more than just security issues, Callion said.

Ice storms, snow storms, flooding, water outages, they are all cases that would call for the system to be used. Aside from himself and Malloy, Callion has designated Police Chief Brent Larrabee and Fire Chief Robert McGrath as people who could administer a reverse 911 notification.

Callion said the city signed a one-year contract with Blackboard for the Connect-CTY service, the cost of which was a little more than $100,000.

Callion said the city's contracts financials were determined by the city's size, noting that if Stamford were a smaller community, the cost would have been less. For more information on the Connect-CTY system, residents can contact the company at 818-808-1789.