BY RAY SCHAEFER
Enquirer Contributor
The siren atop the Morrow Fire Department on East Pike Street that could be used to warn of approaching tornadoes has been silent for more than a year.
But fire chiefs across Warren County wonder whether sirens are even necessary because other means of notifying citizens -- television, commercial radio and special weather radios -- are more effective.
"By the time the siren goes off, the tornado's there," Carlisle Fire Chief Greg Wallace said.
Frank Young, acting director of the Warren County Emergency Management Agency in Lebanon, also prefers modern technology over the sirens because people inside can't hear them anyway.
Clearcreek Township Fire Chief Bernie Becker, however, still sees a need for sirens: to warn people who aren't near a radio or TV. "You still have that void of people outside," he said.
When a funnel cloud is sighted, the National Weather Service office in Wilmington, Ohio, announces tornado warnings and alerts the Warren County Communications Center.
Mr. Young said the county then activates every firefighter's pager and sirens in Franklin Township, Mason and Hamilton Township. Communities that have no sirens, including Morrow, Carlisle and Clearcreek Township (which also covers Springboro), often send police or firefighters into the neighborhoods.
Hamilton Township fixed its siren, and two months ago hooked into the county warning system. Fire Chief Goebel Williams said he is glad he no longer has to send his personnel.
"It's a rough thing to do," he said. "All your resources are tied up with an emergency anyway."
Cost is another reason officials wonder whether it's worth fixing the sirens. Mr. Becker said it would cost between $12,000 and $15,000 to install one siren, plus the cost of software to get into the county warning system.
Morrow Fire Chief and Village Administrator Fred LaFollette said it could cost up to $3,000 to rewire his siren, which had been used only to call firefighters to a run, and not for weather warnings.
Morrow Village Councilman Bob Brown just hopes a tornado doesn't come before his town's siren is fixed.
"It's kind of a concern to me," he said. "We're way behind the times."
