Emmitsburg Launches Its Own App

James Rada, Jr.

The Town of Emmitsburg is debuting its app, My Emmitsburg, this month. You can download it from the town website or wherever you get your apps.

“This is a big thing for us,” said Emmitsburg Mayor Frank Davis. “We want everyone to have a way to receive alerts for emergencies or when roads are closing or just a way to get important information.”

Thurmont has also developed its own app to aid both residents and visitors. Economic Development Director Vickie Grinder introduced the app to the Thurmont Mayor and Commissioners during a recent meeting.

Besides timely information, the apps include business information, the ability to pay town bills online, school information, and links to the town’s social media sites.

Davis said one of the most frequent comments they get in the town office is that residents feel like they don’t know what’s going on. The town has its website and Facebook page, but town staff have found that a lot of residents still don’t use social media.

“Our goal is to reach 80 percent of the town with the app,” Davis said.

To accomplish this, the town will be making a big push in the coming months to get the word out, so residents will be seeing the QR code to download the app on signs throughout the town.

Davis credits the Town of Taneytown for the idea of creating an app. They have been using an app for town services for months with great success. It took about a month and a half to develop Emmitsburg’s version.

Thurmont’s app was worked on for over a year, and Grinder said it is nothing like Taneytown’s app. “This was a lot of information to pull together,” she said.

Thurmont Mayor John Kinnaird said that he was “quite surprised” at the amount of information that can be found on the app and that it is “an amazing tool.”

Davis felt so strongly that the town would benefit from having a similar app that he used money from the mayor’s discretionary fund and the contracts fund to pay for the app development.

“If that’s what it takes to reach our residents, then it’s well worth it,” Davis said.

Picture shows the home screen of the new Town of Thurmont app that will help both residents and visitors keep on top of what is happening in Thurmont.