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Mayville emergency manager: new tornado-siren network now operational, residents report lower indoor audibility
Summary
City staff told the Public Safety Committee the new siren network is fully operational but some residents say they can no longer hear tests indoors; staff said the system meets its design standard of 70 decibels outdoors and daily automated “poll” checks occur.
The City of Mayville’s emergency-management staff told the Public Safety Committee on April 20 that the city’s upgraded tornado-siren network is fully operational but that some residents have reported they no longer hear the sirens from inside their homes.
Ryan (emergency-management staff member) told committee members the system was repaired after several location-specific failures and that the new design was built to deliver at least 70 decibels outdoors across the city. "The new system now covers the entire city completely," Ryan said. He added staff can monitor the system remotely and run local tests from the city’s radio system.
Committee members and residents raised concerns that, compared with the previous network’s many smaller sirens, the new system’s fewer, more powerful units are less likely to be audible inside some homes if a nearby siren was removed. Ryan said some locations use rotating-pad sirens and others use newer, static heads; the monitoring software reports whether each unit rotated and produced an audible signal during a test. He also said the system runs a daily automated "poll test" at 10 a.m. to confirm communications and sensor status; that daily poll does not activate audio or rotation.
Ryan said staff will continue to monitor the test results and coordinate with residents who reported problems. Committee members encouraged continued outreach during upcoming scheduled test days so residents can report whether they heard the sirens.
No formal committee action was recorded on siren policy during the meeting; the item was presented for information and discussion only.
The discussion occurred during the Public Safety Committee meeting and included technical and operational clarifications about which sirens rotate, where the remaining heads are located, and how monitoring and local activation work. Staff emphasized the system’s outdoor audibility design standard rather than indoor volume and asked residents to provide feedback during tests so adjustments can be evaluated.
