Finding and filling an information gap, resident creates solution

Residents of Surry County are a resourceful sort and are familiar with finding creative solutions to problems. That may be a quality passed down between generations of farmers and fixers of this area. Folks who saw a problem and could devise a solution without a manual or training, just using the good sense they were given.

If necessity was the mother of invention, then Surry County resident Harold Finley may deserve to be called the Uncle of Invention. For thousands of residents of this area he has created a free service on social media that serves as a lifeline to information.

If his name is not familiar perhaps the Surry County Alerts Facebook group and its more than 15,000 followers may be more so. In fact, there are more followers of that group than there are residents in fourteen North Carolina counties.

Finley said the Surry County Alerts page, “Is a free service for all where I post fire and rescue calls, daily weather forecast, weather alerts, Amber Alerts and any information that would keep anyone safe out on the roadways.”

A lot of this information was once available to county residents using the Surry County Public Safety Portal which until earlier this year listed emergency types and locations. That service was discontinued during a software transition according to Surry County Emergency Management Director Eric Southern.

When it comes to emergency response, there are protocols developed to ensure that a call for aid is dispatched in a timely manner to the nearest asset whether that be municipal, county, or volunteer.

Redundancies are built into this system to protect residents so that if one fire house is engaged in an emergency, the next nearest serving fire house or rescue squad is paged to step up.

Similarly, with the resource of the Surry Safety Portal no longer available to residents, Finley is stepping up and providing a stopgap for some members of the community who desire closer to real time information on emergencies, accidents, and weather warnings.

Southern said earlier this year that there was no plan yet to replace the Portal. He said, “Communications replaced their software which does not have the capability of a web version. It has been talked about a lot so they may try to find a solution later.”

Finley was a member of the Mount Airy Rescue Squad many years ago and later a member of the Four Way Volunteer Fire Department. He said of his service, “It was all volunteer and I did whatever needed to be done either at the station or on scene.”

Today’s first responders are handling a higher call volume, and he is aware of the problems that volunteer fire departments and rescue squads are having with filling out their rosters. The suggested move toward adding paid firefighters or rescue squad members makes sense to him. “It would be great if they had paid firefighters and rescue personnel but then also have the opportunity for volunteers.”

“We need them in our community to save lives and properties, but they also do a lot of volunteer work,” Finley reminded. Last weekend at the Downtown Rocks and Runs volunteers were on hand to help direct traffic away from the runners and provide first aid as needed – all at no charge to the taxpayer. Those are volunteered hours just the same as ones spent in training or running an emergency call.

Finley said running the Alerts page is a family affair with wife, Candy, helping him by handling weather and news posts but most of the info garnered from listening to an emergency scanner. “I keep a scanner on from the time I get up until I go to bed. Every time I hear the beeps for a call, I listen close to see if it’s something I can post on my page.”

Trying to listen to the police and emergency band scanners in Surry County is a little bit of a task. With a variety of radios of differing age and quality, for the layman trying to discern the codes and locations amidst the crackling buzz of static interference may be a task too difficult. Thankfully, Finley said he knows his scanner codes so that others do not have to.

Not every call that he hears is fit for public consumption. “I never say that someone was killed or a fatality out of courtesy for families. But I will post of an accident with an injury to give warning to use caution and to avoid that location.”

Chairman of the Surry County Board of Commissioners Eddie Harris said that residents having access to information is a good thing. Therefore when the county approved and funded the launch of the Surry on the Go streaming channel it was in part to give residents in all corners of the county a faster way to hear announcements directly from the county.

However, area resident Rana Southern said she would really like to see the Portal come back into existence. “I would love it if they would fix the Surry Safety Portal.” Sometimes she has access to Facebook and others she does not, so having a dedicated website showing where the emergency responses in the county were taking place would allow access without having to log in to social media.

For others, they are getting their information where they can – when they can. “I love that page,” Ben Moore of Dobson said. “Seriously, since we don’t have a television station up here, that’s pretty much as close as it gets to having live updates.”

“I have seen where they posted when Highway 52 was backed up because of a tractor trailer wreck, trees down when it storms, school closings, even the police report from the newspaper. Seems like a good service to me…and the fact that (Finley) is doing it out of generosity for free, that’s really something.”

Finley said he appreciates the feedback and messages from the public. “I had lots of messages when I got back from vacation or when I was recently in the hospital. People said that they really missed the page.”

Once a volunteer, Finley remains on-call today as he listens – waiting for the silence to be pierced by the tones of the alarm and a person in need. That is the best way he can think of now to continue serving his neighbors. “I hope that our page is doing our part in serving the community. Hope the information that everyone receives keeps them same as they travel on highways and byways.”