Published: November 21, 2008 10:20 am      

RC Systems selected as siren vendor

WELTON — Representatives of small towns and rural townships in Clinton County voted Monday to purchase 15 outdoor sirens from RC Systems, Waterloo, to warn their communities of tornados and other emergencies.

“I know we have local sirens,” said Chance Kness, coordinator of the Clinton County Emergency Management Agency, “but the activation of them is an issue.

“Somebody’s got to get up in the middle of the night if there’s a tornado warning and go down to the fire station. A lot of critical time is wasted.”

Also, he said, many of the existing town sirens are aged and are from various vendors. The plan being considered would produce a coordinated system and could be centrally maintained.

“Also, very important, is being able to set the sirens off from the Law Center,” where emergency warnings are received directly from the National Weather Service, Marty Jahn, mayor of Charlotte said.

Jahn added, “One thing I like about this type of system is, if we have something happening in the western part of the county the system could set off the sirens in only the western part of the county.

“It’s not going to affect Clinton people. If you set off (unnecessary) alarms they get a false sense of security” and may not respond when the alarm does apply to them.

Proposals from four companies had been evaluated by a scoring committee. Chance Kness told the group the scoring was remarkably close among the top three.

“Out of a scale of 500, the top three were 11 points apart on pricing adjusted to 15 sirens,” he said.

The committee also listed pro and con information for each of the three companies.

After some discussion, RC was selected on the basis that it offered the lowest estimate, is an Iowa company and, while it is several hours’ drive time away, will send a local person to training. The company also offered the best warranty. Estimated cost per siren is $16,283.22.

Fulton Technologies also was a bidder, with a per siren estimate of $18,268.33. Information from the scoring committee said the company maintains sirens in parts of Clinton County for the Exelon nuclear plant.

Fulton has contractors in the Quad-Cities, makes their own siren additions and have their own control box.

The third proposal considered was from Danko/Federal Signal Co., based in Chicago, which estimated its product at $18,904 per siren. It was the highest estimate offered, and they have no local office.

The RC proposal was accepted, contingent upon financing.

In another motion, Kness was authorized to seek a grant from the Clinton County Community Development Association for 50 percent of the $244,248.27 total project estimate for 15 sirens.

Dick Bennis of Bloomfield Township, asked how the sirens would work for rural people.

“What we’ve been told is, the range of these sirens should reach every township,” Jill Davisson, chairwoman of county emergency management commission said. “Not everybody in a township, but a majority of them — all but about 5,000 residents” in rural areas of the county.

Kness noted the Exelon sirens are required by FEMA to produce a warning at 70 decibels in high population areas but only 60 decibels in low population areas.

“That’s been an issue,” he said. “In some places it’s not quite as loud as I’d like, but I don’t have any ability to force them to add more decibels.”

Those sirens operate in Clinton and Camanche and cover rural areas within 10 miles of the nuclear plant.

Bennis also asked who would pay for the protection for rural residents.

“I don’t think we know yet how the funding is going to work until we know how much we get in grants,” Davisson replied. “Township trustees can do a levy or the supervisors could do a levy. That would help us build up a maintenance fund, like we did with the 911 fund.”

At that point Chance addressed state lawmakers Tom Schueller and Roger Stewart pointing out that Illinois now allows 911 funds to be used for sirens, but Iowa law does not.

Several of the small towns in Clinton County are individually eligible for grants from the USDA Rural Development agency toward the cost of their sirens in addition to any assistance from the CCCDA.

Qualification for USDA rural development money is based on the 2000 census and the median household income at that time.

Andover and Delmar are eligible for rural development grants equal to 15 percent; Lost Nation, and Wheatland, 35 percent; and Toronto, 55 percent.

If all grants are obtained, this would be the amount remaining to pay:

• Andover, $5,757.28.

• Calamus, Charlotte, DeWitt, Goose Lake, Grand Mound, Low Moor and Welton, $8,199.76

• Lost Nation. Delmar and Wheatland, $2,500.

• For the city of Toronto, the 55 percent USDA grant and the city’s share of the CCCDA grant would be more than the city’s share of the cost. Hence, $814 from the CCCDA grant would be distributed equally among the remaining sirens.

Three unincorporated towns in the county also are included in the siren plans: Bryant, Teeds Grove and Elwood. Funding for their protection will be the responsibility of the county.