SNOW HILL – The county will replace a handful of broken outdoor warning sirens as it begins to reevaluate the feasibility of the entire system.
The Worcester County Commissioners in June voted 5-0 to move ahead with replacing five broken warning sirens but directed staff to begin exploring options for the future as the system continues to age.
“I don’t know if it’s not time to do away with them and get something a little better,” Commissioner Ted Elder said.
James Hamilton, the county’s deputy director of emergency services, approached the commissioners last month seeking direction regarding the outdoor warning sirens. He said when the department had brought in an outside vendor to evaluate the system, the review had indicated that 75% of the county’s sirens were beyond their expected useful life.
“The direction that we’re looking for is the priority of the commissioners in how we move forward with this system,” Hamilton said. “Is this something that is still relevant for our constituency? Is it relevant for fire service alerting? Is it relevant for public warning for things like tornadoes?”
While the commissioners consider the future of the system, Hamilton said he was also looking for guidance on fixing the five broken sirens. The county has a total of 19 sirens.
“Probably the newest siren here is 40 to 50 years old,” he said. “There are some that we estimate are 80-90 years old. They’re mechanical pieces of equipment with electric motors. The reason we ask for your direction at this point, in how you would like us to proceed, is we can expect that we will continue to see additional units fail.”
He said the department didn’t have a strong position on the issue and was seeking direction.
Elder questioned the usefulness of the sirens, which can’t be heard from every home.
“Everybody has cell phones,” he said, suggesting the county explore a cell phone based notification system.
Commissioner Joe Mitrecic said fire company officials had said in the past that the outdoor warning sirens were needed because first responders couldn’t always hear their pager.
Commissioner Jim Bunting said he wanted to see the five broken sirens fixed and then the emergency services department could look at the system holistically. Mitrecic said reviewing siren locations should be part of that process, as there were areas such as Route 611 that had no siren despite the county’s largest campground being located on that road.
Repairing the five sirens is expected to cost about $125,000 while a new system, if the county opts to proceed with one, would cost between $500,000 and $750,000.
