Crying Wolf

If you didn’t know…the Wayne County Emergency Management Agency has a service which will text you important messages. It’s called NIXLE and up until last week it had been used for important information or emergencies.

I signed up. Normally, I already know about an impending weather warning when NIXLE lights up my phone. But I think it is a great service and until last week I thought the information shared on it was vital and timely.

Then I got this alert on Thursday. “The City of Fairfield is looking for volunteers to help keep the bathrooms at Freedom Park cleaned this summer.”

I had one friend say he was mowing, got the NIXLE alert, turned off his lawnmower, and read the message. He didn’t think much of it.

The Mayor says he merely talked to the county health department about opening the park facilities…and was told they could only open if the facilities were cleaned a few times a day. He says the city does not have the manpower to attend to the park bathrooms daily. But he says he didn’t request a NIXLE alert.  

It reminded me of the Aesop fable of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. From it is derived the English idiom “to cry wolf,” defined as “to give a false alarm.” If you need volunteers to clean the downtown bathroom, please, use the radio station. We will do a news story. Don’t use emergency technology to solicit de-sanitizers.

I hope this was just a mis-step. Otherwise, the significance of a NIXLE alert will be ignored when a real emergency occurs.

….just like the Boy Who Cried Wolf.