Quorum Court Approves Tornado Sirens & Code Red
March 4th, 2014 by iPhone
After spending several minutes arguing over which topic would be discussed first, The Drew County Quorum Court voted 8 to 1 to accept the first proposal presented to them, Monday night, to continue the purchase of American Signal’s proposed 27 unit tornado siren system for Drew County.
In accepting the agreement, Drew County and the city of Monticello each agree to pay a total of $42,300.
Quorum Court member Rene Knowles (the only dissenting vote) told MLive that she was in favor of purchasing the tornado sirens, but she disagreed with the funding breakdown, believing that a per capita payment would be more appropriate since so many county residents would not be able to hear a siren. The Tillar area’s representative, Frank Appleberry, hesitated before voting “yes”, agreed with Knowles opinion.
The court, however, decided that now was not an appropriate time to discuss future maintenance issues and how they would be paid for.
Next on the agenda, the Code Red phone/digital notification system was quickly approved, at cost to the county of $12,600 for a one year contract.
Sirens great, code red a mistake. The state of Arkansas has the same capability to notify residents. The state turned down Code red because it didn’t meet their standards. Wonder why we didn’t investigate code reds short comings. Oh we’ll, it’s just money. :(
I’m curious, would any of the 8 that voted for the siren answer this—
Would you install something new in your business without knowing how you were going to pay for the upkeep and maintainance on that particular item? Would you “worry about that later”? Really?? Would that be considered being a good business decision? Another case of we got it now-worry about they “little” stuff later. And these are supposed to be business people? Kudos to Rene Knowles and Judge Akin–apparently they are the only people who have any business/common sense. And the mayor—that’s another joke. Just spend baby spend—congrats county officials, you just got the county to pick up the whole “upkeep” tab—you really think the maor will help now that he has his 8 sirens—did not think so. Again congrats!
I agree with Renee Knowles regarding paying for the sirens. I do believe Code Red will be a better option for those of us who live in the County and will not be any where near a siren. I am not sure that our needs and standards are the same as the State’s. We will have a year contract to find out how and if it works. The fact that it can be used for things other than just tornado warnings is a plus.
People are liars. Lying is the new normal. All this money will be spent or said to be spent and when it doesn’t work it’ll be blamed on the infamous “Glitch” and never mentioned again. Government robbing the people will be this generations legacy.
Hi “Taxpayer.” Emergency Communications Network, the providers of the CodeRED service, are sorry to read about your opinion of our system in relation to the above article. We provide CodeRED coverage to more Arkansas counties than any other company providing notification services. The communities that use our service select CodeRED because of the system’s speed and reliability, and many have attributed their use of the system to saving lives. We are always happy to address any questions or concerns individuals, competitors or community members have about our system. Please email us at contactus@ecnetwork.com so we may follow up with your concerns directly. Thank you.
The QC has discussed maintenance of the sirens and will budget for this maintenance accordingly. The sirens will be covered under warranty for 5 years. When it was mentioned that “we will worry about it later”, I believe the intention is to deal with it in the near future, at another meeting. Also, “Spend baby, spend”, is certainly not what this QC believes in. Please feel free to attend our next meeting, and contact your QC representative with any concerns or comments you have. Billie Gober. JP Dist. 3.
Sirens are old technology. Can you say, “Grab that Government money?”
The ones out in the country are one of the ones that benefit less from the code
Red possibly due to lack of service. I am lucky to get a good signal on a sunny
Clear day much less a day of bad weather. But we will just have to see With the sirens,where would they be placed? I am glad Monticello is finally getting something to help warn us about
Possible tornadoes, something we have not had but yet people are already pointing fingers and fussing about not getting one over the other. Be thankful
There is a grant to get one. God forbid we have to rely on it, then you will be thankful we got it. Mayor, sheriff, city council man, County Judge… no matter who
Is in these positions someone is always going to be unhappy with their decisions.
To Emergency Communications Network, if Code Red is so great, please explain why your company was not selected for the states IPAW’s contract. The facts are there. Also you stated that participation average was 35%, in another county! ok that means 65% are not being notified. Now let’s take $12,600 @ 35%. Again there’s where the minority pays for the majority. Then there’s those who don’t have cel phones or a weak or no signal. My point is, not very much investigation done. Oh, I forgot JUDGE AKIN stated “I WANT CODE RED”. We got to remember whose running this show not the Quorum Court who we elected to protect or investments (Taxes). Just saying
The QC is doing a “great” job since nobody chose to run against them.
The sirens and Code Red are great ways to warn people but I think the biggest issue is where to go when a tornado is coming. Most people don’t have storm cellars or basements. What about the people who live in a mobile home? If there were more storm shelters then less lives would be lost.
I just want to comment on your county officials for taking care of the citizens of Drew County… An EF4 tornado went through our ranch in 2005….we do not have sirens out in the county…and that is Union County….it struck at 1130pm, we were in bed and just knew that it was storming…if we would have had Code Red or something similar we would have been alerted…but, we didn’t…as far as cell service, you can ask anybody that knows me, I am probably the only person in the free world without a cell phone…but my husband has one…the tornado came at night…pulled our house off of it’s foundation….took out everything in it path…we possibly could have been warned ahead of time to seek shelter or maybe we would have been able to get our horses into other pastures or saved our 83 yr old neighbor’s life but no….instead my husband made his way in what looked like a war zone to find dead horses, homes totally gone and our neighbors lifeless body….strange as it must seem once the tornado passed I was able to contact my mother, Pat Akin, in Monticello with my husband’s cell phone and tell her we were all right and for her to notify our children that were attending college…most people can get a home phones or cell phones, whether they pay for them or the government provides them….if you have problems with service you need to talk with your provider on more towers….this service is not only for weather warnings, but Amber Alerts and Federal Emergencies…I think it has been a great move on providing safety for Monticello & Drew County residents….thank you for allowing me to comment, Anita Akin Evans