Douglas County weighs replacement and encryption plan for outdoor warning sirens

Whitney Shipley, director of Douglas County Emergency Management, told the Criminal Justice Committee on May 1 that the county’s 26 outdoor warning sirens are currently operational but aging, and 17 of them are at or near the end of their service life and no longer have factory replacement parts.

Shipley said the county relies on several public warning systems — National Weather Service wireless phone alerts, weather radio broadcasts and local broadcast media — and that the county’s responsibility is the outdoor siren network. “There are 26 sirens, and I’m thrilled to tell you that as of today, they all work,” Shipley said. She cautioned, however, that 17 units, mostly inherited in approximately the same era, have horns and rotating mechanical parts for which the manufacturer no…