After several years of not operating, Salem Emergency Management Agency Coordinator Andrew Strong says the Lake Street weather warning siren at the Marion County Fairgrounds and the siren in Bryan Memorial Park are once again working.
He told the city council Monday night they finally found a company that was willing to work on the sirens and with spare parts from the Centralia and Marion County ESDA units, they are now back in operation…at least for now.
“Am I super happy with this patch and fix…no. They have been outside for over 20 years and there comes a time where you have to start fresh. We are actively looking at grants and ways we can update the whole county wide system to get up with the times and be more automatic and do more things for us. The new sirens now can not only be used just for tornado warnings, but there is software out now where we have any kind of incident in a town we would be able to broadcast a live message from a phone or computer that would be specific for that incident.”
Strong says the East Main Street siren near the Salem Tire Center warehouse is still not working. An inspection found the electronics had been struck by lightning. He’s getting an estimate of the cost to fix the siren as well as inquiring about any insurance claim that can be made.
Strong says the sirens by Taco Bell and NAL continue to function correctly. He notes an inspection of the warped pole holding the Taco Bell siren is in no danger of falling and replacing it would cost half the amount of installing an entire new siren.
