Commissioners back federal IPAWS alert hookup and issue countywide burn ban

DuBois County commissioners on Sept. 15 endorsed a plan to apply for the federal Integrated Public Alert & Warning System (IPAWS) to expand emergency notification capabilities and approved an executive order imposing a countywide burn ban because of dry conditions.

Emergency-management staff told the board IPAWS would integrate with the county’s existing Rave/Motorola platform to permit targeted, polygon-based emergency alerts to cell phones without requiring residents to sign up. Staff said the IPAWS integration carries an additional annual cost of about $1,800; the emergency manager said she would seek the county council’s approval for the recurring expense in the 2026 budget.

“...this is going to be fabulous because we’ll be able to do polygons,” an emergency-management presenter said, describing the system’s ability to alert only people in a narrowly defined area during hazardous-material or other localized incidents. 9‑1‑1 leadership in the meeting supported the request and noted monthly testing and administrator training would be required under the federal program.

The commission asked that staff draft a standard operating procedure that defines when and how IPAWS messages will be sent; commissioners indicated support conditioned on that policy and on staff training.

Separately, all commissioners signed an executive order instituting a countywide burn ban effective Sept. 15, 2025, continuing until rescinded. The county’s emergency manager told the board that local fire chiefs requested the ban because regional conditions and forecasts raised the risk of fires spreading from controlled burns or debris burns.

Both actions were voted or endorsed at the meeting: commissioners voted to support staff pursuing IPAWS integration (to be presented to the council for budget action) and unanimously approved the burn-ban executive order to take effect immediately.