The Kansas City, Kan., Board of Public Utilities recently announced a partnership with Nextdoor, (www.nextdoor.com), the free and private social network for neighborhoods, to increase communications with residents directly from BPU and get updates on key issues such as outages, main breaks and special events.
BPU has joined the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kan., which joined the private social network in 2014. BPU is the first electric utility in the KC metro area to join Nextdoor.
“Nextdoor provides an additional outlet for the BPU to communicate with neighborhoods,” said BPU chief communications officer David Mehlhaff. “I encourage Kansas City, Kansas (KCK) residents to join Nextdoor to better connect with both their neighbors and their utility. More than 70 KCK neighborhoods already use Nextdoor and that number is growing.”
Each KCK neighborhood has its own private Nextdoor website, accessible only to residents of that neighborhood where they can share information, including neighborhood public safety issues; community events and activities; local services; garages sales and even lost pets.
BPU will not be able to access residents’ websites, contact information, or content. Information shared on Nextdoor is password protected and cannot be accessed by Google or other search engines, according to a spokesman.
Those interested in joining their neighborhood’s Nextdoor website or with questions can visit www.nextdoor.com and enter their address.
Based in San Francisco, more than 109,000 neighborhoods across the United States are using Nextdoor.
– Story from BPU