Residents and visitors to the Brewton area now have access to a wealth of information — and it’s right in the palm of their hands.
A smart phone application has now gone live making businesses, industries, events and amenities in Brewton available with a single touch.
The city’s IT administrator Doug O’Barr, has been working on creating the application with the help of Tyler Grissett who serves as the city’s assistant IT administrator.
“This has been in the works for about six months or so,” O’Barr said. “We are happy that we’ve gotten everything working and ready to go for the city.”
Grissett said the application is filled with a variety of categories meant to help promote Brewton and what it has to offer.
“This application will be of benefit to the community and to tourists,” Grissett said. “This application gives people access to information on businesses and what we have to offer in the city.”
Brewton Mayor Ted Jennings said the application is a welcome addition to the services offered by the city.
“We know this is a work in progress,” Jennings said. “Actually, it always will be a work in progress since technology is always changing. This is really a great step forward for the city in being able to get information out to our citizens.”
O’Barr said other functions of the application will give information to citizens about breaking news and emergency situations.
“Once the application is downloaded we have the ability to send out alerts to those who have it,” O’Barr said. “In the event of a tornado, hurricane or even emergency street closures, we can let the public know immediately.”
O’Barr said the application will also be a tool the community can use to relay information to various service departments.
“If someone needs to get information to our street department about a pothole that needs fixing, they can use this application to do that,” O’Barr said. “They can relay information about any other kind of issues ranging from street issues all the way to animal control.”
O’Barr said the application will also be a way to let the community know about activities planned around the area.
“We have included a calendar of events in the application subcategories,” O’Barr said. “You can choose to see what’s happening around town on a specific date or a range of dates. The calendar we have in place will go out a year in advance of any activity or event planned. Groups just need to get the information to us and we’ll include it on the application.”
Grissett said the application is easy to use and is free to those with newer model smart phones.
“The application is fully-functional for Iphone users and for most android phones as well,” Grissett said. “The application is being improved all the time and will be available for other phones in the future.”
The application currently holds information about each of the businesses in the Brewton area.
“We have included every business that has a business license in Brewton,’ O’Barr said. “Right now there about 4,000 businesses included in the application. We re updating constantly and making changes as we continue to improve the content and capabilities.”
The application is available for download to iPhones and android devices free of charge from the Apple app store and for android, downloads are available from GooglePlay.
The application is free for any phone.