Last Tuesday Hennessey tested their tornado siren system and it failed. Mayor Bert Gritz reported to the board at the Trustees that none of the 5 town tornado sirens work. Parts of the current system are over 50 years old and operate using copper phone lines. Gritz said, โMost of the sirens work, we just canโt communicate with them. The one south of town near Oakwood Dr. looks like an animal chewed through the wiring. The board took action on 2 solutions. The first action was to replace all of the sirens with all new equipment that can be activated via 2-way radio and each one will have battery backup. The problem is they will not be installed in time for this yearโs spring storm season.
The second action they took was to hire Farmers Electric to install a cellphone activation system on each of the existing sirens bypassing the old phone lines. Gritz told the board that this can be done in a few weeks and will get us covered for this year. This system can be reused for other things around town after the new sirens are installed, such as turning the sewer lagoon pumps on and off remotely.
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