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Grant County emergency management schedules siren test, pursues county storm certification and siren-mapping tool
Summary
Emergency management staff told the fiscal court the county is working toward a county storm certification, will hold tornado-siren testing Friday, and 911 staff have developed a GPS mapping tool to track siren outages and repairs.
Emergency management staff told the Grant County Fiscal Court on March 5 the county is working toward a formal storm-certification program and that tornado-siren testing scheduled for the day was moved to Friday because of weather.
A county employee and Tyler, who works with the county’s 911 board, described the storm-certification process as largely paperwork-based: officials said they have completed the required documents and must modify a provided template to meet local needs, after which an inspector will review the plan and supporting files. The staff member said the county is “moving in that direction” but that the process takes time.
Tyler described a new 911-board software tool that maps the GPS locations of county sirens, flags devices taken out of service, attaches notes on why they are out of service and tracks planned repair dates. He said the tool can be shared with county officials so they can view the operational status of sirens between monthly meetings. Officials noted one relay at the Tractor Supply siren had been stolen and that county staff are replacing it.
Officials discussed long-standing questions about where residents should go during a siren event; the previous plan relied on fire departments, but members said that can be impractical because fire stations must remain operational. The court directed staff to share the siren-mapping information with members to help identify outages and planned repairs. No formal action was taken; the discussion was informational and about preparedness steps.
