Troup County staff recommends applying for hazard‑mitigation grant to replace tornado sirens

An emergency‑management staff member (Zach) urged the board to pursue a GEMA/FEMA hazard mitigation grant that would replace the county’s aging tornado sirens and potentially add two additional units. He said the program is a 75 percent federal, 25 percent local match and that the total quoted project cost is $918,665, requiring a local match of $229,666. Zach described interoperability tradeoffs with neighboring municipalities and said the Hazard Mitigation grant deadline is Sept. 30, which prompted the expedited request for permission to apply.

"The total grant cost would be $918,665 requiring a local match of 229666," Zach said, and staff noted the plan quoted replacement of 26 sirens to cover unincorporated county areas plus some city coverage. He told commissioners the system would support remote health monitoring, include activation hardware and batteries, and could be configured to tie activations to National Weather Service polygons rather than county‑wide blasts. Staff also suggested discussing match sharing with LaGrange and Hogansville because those cities would benefit from replacements within their limits.