Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Emergency Management topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
St. Joseph County EMA reports progress on outdoor warning siren overhaul, cites FCC and supply-chain delays
Summary
EMA Director Al Kurtz told commissioners the county is installing new repeaters, radios and siren hardware and has obtained sites and partial funding; the project was delayed by FCC frequency issues and equipment availability but now is moving toward installation.
ST. JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. — St. Joseph County Emergency Management Director Al Kurtz told the county commissioners on Sept. 16 that a major overhaul of the county’s outdoor warning siren network is advancing after delays tied to FCC frequency coordination and supply-chain problems.
Kurtz said new antennas were installed on the Jackson Road ATC tower, the county’s 9-1-1 center and the EMA office, and that a new digital (digi) repeater installation at the PSAP (public-safety answering point) is imminent. He said West Shore Services is programming 453 megahertz Kenwood radios and preparing battery boxes and that crews will begin work at priority sites once the county repeater is operating.
“Starting Friday or Monday morning, they’re gonna be on the roof of the building here putting in a digi repeater, antenna there, and that’s gonna allow these sirens to all talk to each other,” Kurtz said.
Kurtz told commissioners the county may add battery backups at the Jackson Road site even though the ATC tower has a generator, saying a trickle-charged battery backup would provide extra resilience. He said two of five new sites are being finalized and that three sirens for the Amazon/GN project were approved the same day by economic development staff.
Kurtz described steps taken to modernize monitoring: new rack-mounted equipment and the digi repeater will allow the EMA to see which sirens are functioning in near real time and to troubleshoot remotely with the vendor. He said the county secured a grant for approximately 42 high‑grade weather‑alert radios to deploy to at‑risk populations and large facilities.
Commissioners and staff discussed recent test failures and piggybacking incidents in neighboring jurisdictions. Kurtz said Cleveland Township had been using the county frequency under a verbal agreement but will obtain its own frequency and likely hire West Shore Services. He urged patience as the project finishes site work and repeater programming.
The board thanked Kurtz and Deputy Director Jim Lopez for the update and asked the EMA to provide additional details to the governor’s office task force that the county had applied to join.
