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Municipal alarm notification for public works, IT and facilities

When a storm lift station fails at 1 a.m., the public works person on call should know before the street floods. Welco texts the alarm emails your departments already send, plus voicemails from the after-hours line, to the staff who cover them. One account serves every department, with no per-user fees.

Text me my after-hours alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

  • One account for every department
  • Nothing to install
  • No per-user fees

Works by email with

  • Pump & lift stations
  • Metasys
  • APC UPS
  • After-hours voicemail

A pump station schematic: Storm Lift 2 level rises above its 8 ft high alarm setpoint to 8.6 ft and the alarm turns on. The email reaches Welco and the phone shows: “Welco: [Storm Lift 2] Pump 1 FAIL, high water float at 1:41 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Animation: alerts arrive through the night and each goes to the right person. 9:17 p.m., to IT coordinator: "Welco: [Town Hall] Server room 31C, AC unit fault at 9:17 PM. Reply STOP to opt out." 1:41 a.m., to Public works on call: "Welco: [Storm Lift 2] Pump 1 FAIL, high water float at 1:41 AM. Reply STOP to opt out." 3:33 a.m., to On-call roads crew lead: "Welco: New voicemail on Public Works After-Hours line from (705) 555-0129, 0:52. Reply STOP to opt out."

What a town or municipality gets from Welco

Each department's alarms and after-hours voicemails reach the staff member on call by text, all from one account. Public works, IT and building maintenance each keep their own.

A storm night with a three-person on-call bench

In a small Ontario town, public works, IT and building maintenance each have one person on call. Here is how a heavy rain night plays out.

  1. Town hall closes and the night rules start

    After-hours routing sends each department's alarms to its one person on call until 7 a.m.

  2. Telemetry emails a storm station alarm

    ALARM STORM_LS4 PUMP2 FAIL TO RUN WET WELL HIGH 23:52:31

  3. The public works phone lights up

    Welco: [Storm LS 4] Pump 2 fail to run, wet well HIGH at 11:52 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.

  4. A resident calls the after-hours line

    Welco: New voicemail on Public Works After-Hours line from (705) 555-0136, 0:41. Listen: welco.ai/v/R7mPx2. Reply STOP to opt out.

  5. The crew lead answers from the station

    At LS4, pump 2 reset and running. Oak St caller is the same water, checking next

  6. The reply reaches the department by email

    Text replies are emailed to the alert's sender. With the delivery report, the director can show council what happened.

    Reply from the public works on-call phone: At LS4, pump 2 reset and running. Oak St caller is the same water, checking next

The times are an illustration, and mobile carriers deliver every text. A text reply leaves the alarm active in your telemetry system.

How to set up municipal alarm texts, one department at a time

Your IT coordinator or the public works supervisor can do this. Each system needs one more email recipient.

  1. Sign up and verify your municipality

    Tell us which departments will send alarms. We verify each municipal account before its number can send.

  2. Invite on-call staff from each department

    Each person enters their own cellphone on the invite and replies YES once. Residents are never on the list.

  3. Add Welco to each system's alarm email

    Add your Welco address next to today's recipients and approve that sender. Test mode shows each text without sending it.

Send tonight's server room alarm to your IT coordinator

Sign up, verify your municipality and point one system at Welco.

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing

Text me my after-hours alarmsBook a demo

Which municipal systems can send alarm texts?

One account takes alarms from every department. Guides cover Metasys alarm texts for town buildings and access control alarms for after-hours entry. Pump stations use generator alarm texts, and snowplows leaving the yard can send fleet GPS alerts.

Alarms town staff get up for

These are masked examples. Many look like those at water and sewer departments, school buildings and other industries Welco works with.

  • Water tower: Welco: [North Tower] Level LOW, 5.5 m at 2:07 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Arena: Welco: [Arena] Rear staff door HELD OPEN 10 min at 10:44 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.
  • Fleet: Welco: [Fleet] Plow 12 left the yard after hours at 3:56 AM. Reply STOP to opt out.

A phone showing these alert texts: Water tower, "Welco: [North Tower] Level LOW, 5.5 m at 2:07 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Arena, "Welco: [Arena] Rear staff door HELD OPEN 10 min at 10:44 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."; Fleet, "Welco: [Fleet] Plow 12 left the yard after hours at 3:56 AM. Reply STOP to opt out."

Which municipal alarms should text staff after hours?

Text the alarms that flood a street, drain a water tower, leave a building open or take town services offline. Routine reports and daytime events can stay in each department's email.

Public works alarms worth a text

  • A storm or sanitary lift station pump failure, or a high wet well.
  • A water tower or reservoir running LOW.
  • A pump station on generator after a power cut.
  • A new message on the after-hours public works line.

IT and building alarms worth a text

  • The town hall server room on battery or running hot.
  • The core switch or internet circuit down at town hall.
  • A heating or cooling fault at town hall, the library or the arena.
  • A door held open after closing time.

Keep the rest in each department's email

Daily reports, recoveries and fleet trips during working hours don't need a text. Neither do alarms from a building closed for the season. Our on-call basics for a small bench covers sharing nights between departments.

A UPS alarm from the town hall server room

PowerChute emails are long and formal. Welco gives the IT coordinator the UPS name, the battery state and the time left.

Alert email from powerchute@townhall.example.ca, subject “PowerChute Event: On Battery”. Welco trims it to one text of 90 characters: “Welco: [TH-MDF-UPS1] On battery, 22 min runtime left at 11:02 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.”

Text received: Welco: [TH-MDF-UPS1] On battery, 22 min runtime left at 11:02 PM. Reply STOP to opt out.

Characters201901 credit

Animation: the alert email "PowerChute Event: On Battery" is trimmed into one text: "Welco: [TH-MDF-UPS1] On battery, 22 min runtime left at 11:02 PM. Reply STOP to opt out."

See APC UPS text alerts for the PowerChute and network card setup.

Night calls for a small town, then and now

The way it was

  • A pump alarm rides on a dialer bought years ago.
  • Alarm emails go to a Bell address, retired in 2025, or a Rogers one that users report has stopped.
  • After-hours voicemails wait for the clerk at 8 a.m.
  • One duty phone gets every department's alarms.

With Welco

  • The station, the pump and the fault on the crew lead's phone.
  • A dedicated alert number that only your town uses.
  • The crew lead plays the resident's message from the text.
  • Each department's alarms go to its own person.

Frequently asked questions

Can one account cover public works, IT and parks and recreation?

Yes. Approve each department's system as a sender, then write rules that send each one's alarms to its own staff. A pump alarm never reaches the IT person unless you put them on that rule. Shared alarms, like a generator at town hall, can go to two departments.

Can we text residents about water main breaks or road closures?

No. Welco is only for alarms to your own staff, who confirm their phones with a YES reply. Public notices need a separate emergency or community messaging service. Keep those two jobs apart.

How do we budget for Welco?

You pay no per-user fees, and there's no hardware or setup fee. Your cost follows the message credits your alarm texts use, not headcount, which is simple to explain to the treasurer. A 7-day trial with 15 credits comes first, and the verification card is charged only once you approve a plan. See the pricing page for current plans, all priced in US dollars.

Can we test Welco before we switch off the old alarm dialer?

Yes. Turn on test mode and send your real alarm emails through Welco. You see each text it would send, and nothing goes to a phone or uses credits. The dialer and today's alarm emails keep working while you compare.

Who in the town can change which phones get alarms?

Whoever manages your Welco account. They invite town staff and choose who gets each alarm, and staff need no app to receive texts. Each person replies YES first and can reply STOP to leave. Only senders you approve can trigger texts.

Does Welco work with our municipality's Microsoft 365 email?

Yes. Many towns send alarm mail through Microsoft 365, or forward it with an Outlook rule. Approve the address the mail comes from, and Welco texts it. See Outlook rule forwarding for the steps.

Give every department's alarms a phone to land on

Approve one town system and invite your on-call staff by email.

Text me my after-hours alarmsBook a demo

7-day free trial, 15 message creditsCard required for verificationNo charge for 7 daysEmail reminder before billing