NILES — It will not be long before Niles is hit with snow.

Snow may make for an ideal Hunter Ice Festival in January, but it could also cause a cold night with a power outage.

Either way, subscribing to Niles’ text messaging list is meant to help residents stay informed about a city-related situations, whether positive or negative, such as the effects of a flurry of frozen flakes.

By texting “NILESCITY” to 555888, residents will receive public safety, public works and utility breaking news, including power outages, in real time. By texting “NILESFUN” to 555888, residents will receive job openings and upcoming events and activities, including Hunter Ice Festival information.

One can also sign up by going to nilesmi/org.

The service, said city administrator Ric Huff, is meant to serve a “black hole” for breaking news.

“We felt that we didn’t really have a way to share what was happening in our community with the people who live in the community in a very direct way,” he said.

While local news media often reports on developing events, they cannot cover everything as soon as an issue appears, he said. Others, with larger markets outside Niles, may not be interested in reporting on a water main break, then following up when it is fixed a few hours later.

The text messaging list is meant to fill that gap.

The service has been available for three years, but it is still largely unknown in the community, Huff said. About 1,100 people are signed up, a “drop in the bucket” of Niles’ population of approximately 11,000. That is a 10 percent sign-up rate, if all subscribers are Niles residents, that is.

“It’s really hard to get information out,” Huff said. “One of our past community development directors always joked that he was going to buy a used Goodyear blimp and anchor it over the city with a scrolling marquee on it.”

The text service is not only meant to inform residents of city issues and opportunities quickly and unobtrusively, it also takes some stress off of city employees’ and city officials’ shoulders.

Before the text service, the city tried a Facebook page. It did not go well, Huff said.

People saw the social media platform as an answer to everything, rather than a one-way information page. It became risky when people began reporting crimes in progress on the page, creating the chance for someone to get hurt, Huff said.

So, the page was taken down and the text and email lists were created. Huff said this method works best because many people have their phones on them at most times, but not everyone has a Facebook app with notifications on.

Still, people without the service rely on older methods of communication, which bog down city workers from fixing an issue.

Huff used a power outage as an example. When the lights went out in a neighborhood, everyone in that neighborhood would call to report an outage, despite the city usually knowing of it already. Phone lines would then become swamped with the same sorts of calls.

Others may rely on city officials for information.  Niles Mayor Nick Shelton has a Facebook page that copy-pastes any breaking news update the text service sends out.

To save the city’s time, and residents’, Huff said a quick text service signup is best.