Brown County approves City of Early's use of county emergency alert platform; city to pay $2,124 annually

Brown County's Commissioner's Court on June 24 approved an agreement permitting the City of Early to use the county's emergency communication platform and share annual contract costs.

County staff described the agreement as giving Early access to one-sixth of the county's message allocation (25,000 messages) and said the city will pay one-sixth of the annual contract cost, which the presenter calculated at $2,124 per year. "We can dedicate a sixth of the messages for their use which comes to 25,000 messages and they will pay a sixth of the total contract which comes out to $2,124 a year," the presenter said.

Staff said the county will invoice Early each January and the county's contract with the vendor is paid annually in March. The presenters explained how overage charges will be handled: each entity will be responsible for any additional message purchases if it causes the overage. The platform messages will be tagged to make clear when a message originates with the city versus the county.

Commissioner Reed moved the motion to approve the agreement and Commissioner Helton seconded; the court voted in favor.

The agreement is expected to reduce duplicative platform purchases for the city and provide a way to coordinate emergency and routine messaging, while preserving clear tracking and billing for message overages. Implementation steps include final execution by the county judge and invoicing the City of Early for its annual share.

Clarifying details: city receives 25,000 messages (one-sixth), county retains remaining capacity (125,000 messages, per presentation), city pays $2,124 annually, invoiced in January with county paying vendor in March; overage purchases charged to the entity that triggered them.