Daviess County Fiscal Court approved a bid last week for two additional community notification sirens to be installed — one each on Girl Scout Road and Lonesome Pine Road. The two sirens will be the first additions of Daviess County Emergency Management Agency’s 10-year Community Notification Expansion Plan.
Fiscal Court approved the low bid of $43,720, while another bid came in at $47,004.
Community notification sirens are used during harsh weather conditions and weather emergencies such as tornado warnings.
Daviess County purchasing agent Jordan Johnson said they had previously been replacing old mechanical sirens and maintaining existing sirens.
All of the old mechanical sirens have been replaced by electric sirens, Johnson said.
One of the advantages of the new, electronic sirens is that DCEMA can check the sirens for issues instead of having to send somebody out.
“I saw on Facebook that in the Philpot area, there were people that said when the cold weather vortex came down and the sirens went off, they didn’t hear the siren very well,” said Judge-Executive Al Mattingly.
DCEMA was able to check the siren from their office, finding that the amplifier was out, Mattingly said.
“They’ve got an amplifier on order and it should be repaired by tomorrow or early next week,” he said.
