Know Your Atascadero Zone!
By: City Manager, Rachelle Rickard
Atascadero residents will soon be hearing a lot about “Know Your Atascadero Zone!”
The City’s highest priority, above all, is the safety of our community and its citizens. A vital part of emergency preparedness is having accurate and timely communication with members of the community. The City of Atascadero is very excited to introduce “Know Your Atascadero Zone” and Zonehaven, an online program that will provide rapid, accurate communication to residents that may be threatened by various types of emergencies or natural disasters that may occur, including wildland fire.
We’ll begin by urging everyone to look up their property address to learn their zone, and then to enroll in the alerts that will provide instant information about any emergencies that may occur within their neighborhood, along with detailed instructions on what steps they should take and how to safely avoid danger.
To implement this new emergency information service, our community has been divided into zones based on geographical features, population and evacuation needs. This information will be used to identify areas that might need to be evacuated during an emergency. Additionally, traffic flow studies will help to ensure that any necessary evacuation traffic moves quickly and safely. Real time information provided by this program will also allow emergency responders to make the best decisions quickly, enabling them to limit property damage and save lives.
The City constantly works towards ensuring the safety of our community and we’re happy to implement our new “Know Your Atascadero Zone” program to help further that effort. Our goal is for every resident to know their property’s zone, to sign up for the emergency alerts so that they’ll be prepared, will have the information they need when it’s needed, and will know what actions they should take at the time of an emergency.
We expect that this new program will be made available to our residents later this month, so be on the lookout for more information, coming soon!
For more information about this particular topic, please contact our Fire & Emergency Services department at 805-461-5070, or feel free to contact me at rrickard@atascadero.org.
City Manager, Rachelle Rickard
Rachelle Rickard is a native of California and a nearly 30 year resident of Atascadero. She graduated with a business degree from California Polytechnic (Cal Poly) State University in San Luis Obispo. In February 1997, She took a job as the Accountant with the City of Atascadero and was promoted to the position of Director of Administrative Services. At the time of her appointment to the position of Administrative Services Director for the City of Atascadero, she was the youngest person ever appointed to that role; she was also the first female Department Head ever appointed within the City. Rachelle Rickard was appointed to the position of City Manager of the City of Atascadero in June, 2013.
