Council renews siren donation, removes donor-funded frequency upgrade and asks attorney to draft liability MOU

Colchins council members voted to renew the agreement covering a town siren while stripping language that would have required the donor to pay for a frequency update.

The issue surfaced after the volunteer fire department told the council that the siren installed years ago no longer auto-triggers because the Department of Emergency Management changed radio frequencies during installation. Speaker 9, the city attorney, summarized options and recommended approving the renewal of the donation while removing any requirement that the donor pay to refrequency the system. "You would approve the agreements, with a donation of $32,950 and a $0 donation from the frequency system at this time," Speaker 9 said.

Council members discussed three options: accept responsibility for manually activating the siren, accept a one-time city payment to update the siren so it auto-triggers, or defer the cost to a future budget. The fire department had estimated an update would "cost around 8,000," a number repeated by multiple speakers during the discussion. Speaker 7 urged a temporary, makeshift plan of manual activation with training while budgeting for the $8,000 repair in a later cycle.

To protect volunteers, Speaker 7 moved that the city draft a memorandum of understanding that would release the volunteer fire department from liability for manually activating the siren until the frequency is fixed; Speaker 9 agreed to prepare the document. The motion to amend the agreement and pursue the MOU was presented and proceeded to the approved action on the donation language.

The council did not commit city funds immediately for the frequency update. Instead, it approved renewing the donation value for the existing siren ($32,950) while removing the must-pay clause for the donor regarding re-frequency work and asked staff and the attorney to handle amended paperwork and the proposed MOU.