Urbana Park District is debuting a new way to receive announcements and communicate with the park district.
Using Saint Charles, IL, based VoyagerNetz, people can now send and receive text messages with park district employees.
“VoyagerNetz is going to replace our Rainout Line,” said Mark Schultz, Public Information and Marketing Manager. “People can format the types of messages they want to receive from the park district and be able to send text messages directly to the park district,” he added.
People can visit the Follow Your Interest website. Choose to follow interests in different categories: Anita Purves Nature Center, Aquatics, Athletics, Camps, Community Events, The Health & Wellness Center, The Lake House in Crystal Lake Park, Planning and Operations, Outreach and Wellness or General Park District information. Follow the prompts and begin following the interest.
There are specific interests in each category. “Follow as many or as few interests as you’d like,” Schultz said. He explained, “You will only get messages and emergency announcements for the interests you follow. Unless it is a weather-related closure, we won’t bother patrons with blanket announcements that they don’t want.”
People can also communicate with park district employees. On the Follow Your Interest page, use the “contact us” feature to send a text message to the park district. The park district will respond within one business day.
People can type their message in their native language and VoyagerNetz will translate it for the park district and the park district’s response will translate back into the person’s native language.
“This new text message feature will help us communicate quickly, easily and efficiently with our patrons, and allow patrons to efficiently communicate with us,” said Corky Emberson, Superintendent of Recreation. He concluded, “We hope everyone takes advantage of this new way to communicate with the park district.”
