By JONATHAN ZWEYGARDT
Hays Post
Ellis County will getting new outdoor warning systems in several locations later this year after the county commission gave the go-ahead to purchase a new system Monday.
The current storm sirens are nearly 40 years old and in need or replacement, according to Director of Fire and Emergency Darin Myers.
Myers said the current sirens, with the exception of the six recently installed in the city of Hays, have been experiencing several issues. The city of Hays began installing new sirens after 2010, and Fort Hays State also replaced an aging siren around that same time.
In the existing sirens, there is no way to determine if they are working properly outside of the weekly test at noon Monday. If the power goes out, there is no way to activate the sirens, and they must be activated through a process that takes several steps and adds extra time to the notification process.
Myers said the new system will have several advantages.
“They’ll all have battery backup. They’ll all be connected to a server here within Ellis County, so that way if anything ever goes wrong with them, they fail to operate, the power goes down (or) somebody plows a telephone pole over in an accident, we’ll immediately get called, emailed and notified. … That way, we can get service out to get the sirens back up and running,” Myers said.
The upgraded system will also put all of the sirens in Ellis County on one system. This will make it easier to activate the sirens. The city of Hays currently has the software for the sirens but Federal Signal, the company that will provide the sirens and software, will upgrade the system and that will allow all of the sirens to be on the same system, according to Myers.
Myers said when the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning for an area the new sirens will go off automatically, without any human interaction. Ellis County crews will still be able to activate the sirens locally.
The cost of the total new system, including the purchase of 11 sirens is $254,250 with $184,486 of that coming from the county’s capital reserve funds. Victoria’s costs will be $22,754 and, for Ellis, it will be $47,009. Both Victoria and Ellis city councils voted Monday to move forward with the project.
The siren locations include Ellis, Victoria, Pfeifer, Schoenchen, Munjor, Antonino, Catharine, Walker and two surrounding Hays.
Midwest Energy will install utility poles and power to those poles for $8,080, a discounted price to the county and $1,750 for a computer server through the Ellis County IT Department.
Crews are expected to begin replacing the sirens in November.
In other business, the commission approved a 5 percent reduction in commissioner salary and added the position of shop foreman to a list of high-demand occupations. The move allows the county to add 10 percent premium pay to any new hire in that position.