Manasquan Residents Received Wall Emergency Notifications Monday

As Wall Township recently switched providers of its emergency notification system, it appears some Manasquan residents' phone numbers inadvertanly were added to the list of contacts, officials said. 

Manasquan Police Chief Elliott Correia on Tuesday said that residents have been contacting borough police inquiring why the received a telephone call from the neighboring town's alert system Monday night. 

Wall Patrolman Steve Nash, who is in charge of Wall's emergency notification system, said the system for the first time was tested Monday night, beginning around 5 p.m.

The system, Global Connect, dialed 36,700 phone numbers in a little more than 90 minutes. Some of those numbers, which were provided by Verizon, were Manasquan residents, Nash said.

"It's a new system,'' Nash said. "That's why we do these tests -- to work all the kinks from the system.''

Overall, Nash said he was pleased with the performance of the system. He said all Manasquan residents' numbers would be expunged from the call list. No call to the Police Department was necessary, he said, because the Global Connect system uses a GPS tracking matching names, phone numbers and addresses.

Nash said Manasquan residents' who received the test message Monday will not be contacted again.