Robinson council debates $3 million siren rebuild and leans toward phone-based Everbridge alerts

Robinson City Council spent the bulk of its meeting weighing whether to replace the city—s aging outdoor warning siren network or rely primarily on phone-based emergency alerts.

Speaker 1, who led the discussion, said the city—s two existing sirens are “toast” and that replacing all 17 units shown on staff—s coverage map would cost about $3,000,000. “The 17 cost $3,000,000,” Speaker 1 said, framing the price tag as unaffordable for the small city.

Councilors and staff outlined tradeoffs between the traditional siren model and a digital-first approach. A staff representative (Speaker 5) explained the existing equipment was purchased used from Army surplus roughly 20 years ago, is now obsolete and cannot be repaired piecemeal; replacement of even two working sirens would require new poles, amplifiers and batteries, with per-unit figures discussed in the meeting. “To add back two working sirens would put us roughly in the neighborhood of $90,000 each,” Speaker 5 said, and ongoing maintenance was estimated at roughly $8,000 a year.

Several council members and staff pointed to Everbridge, a phone-based emergency-notification system the city can push to residents. Speaker 10 reported that about 2,200 accounts were signed up for the city—s Everbridge notifications; the city has roughly 5,400 utility customers. “We went from 2,200 to… are we going to be able to reach these people this way?” Speaker 1 asked; the enrollment figure became a central datum for deciding whether a digital outreach campaign could meaningfully improve coverage.

Concerns about relying solely on phone alerts were aired: speakers noted some residents do not carry phones, older residents may lack smartphones, and users can opt out of certain alerts. Council members stressed that sirens are designed to warn people outdoors and that a combined approach might be necessary. One council member cited examples from other communities where failures or delays in warning systems led to public pressure and leadership consequences; another urged that removing sirens entirely could raise liability concerns if residents argued the city had inadequate warning systems.

After extensive back-and-forth, councilors agreed on next steps rather than a final policy decision. Staff was tasked to gather specific ratings and coverage information for new siren units and for scaled options (for example, replacing two or four units in key locations) and to return those figures to council. The mayor asked Destiny—s social-media team to run a short, targeted Everbridge-signup campaign over the next two weeks so the city could measure whether outreach materially increased enrollment before committing to a large capital expense.

The discussion ends with the council asking staff to provide: (1) cost estimates and coverage analysis for limited and full siren replacement options, (2) pricing to remove or salvage the two inoperable poles, and (3) a report on measures to increase Everbridge enrollment, including the number currently signed up and options to provide weather-alert radios or other accommodations for residents without cell phones. The council did not take a final vote to fund sirens during this meeting; members instead directed staff to return with the requested information.