Saturday, April 08, 2000
New warning sirens cover most of Kenton County
Neighbor areas also upgrading
BY RAY SCHAEFER
Enquirer Contributor
COVINGTON — After years of talking about it, Kenton County will have a new outdoor emergency siren system in place by the end of the month.
Bary Lusby, the county's director of emergency management, said installation of 28 sirens began this week. Those will be added to three sirens in Crestview Hills, and the entire setup should be in place by April 24.
“Our goal is to have outdoor warning sirens to alert 95 percent of the county's (142,000) population,” Mr. Lusby said.
The project costs about $440,000. Mr. Lusby said about $120,000 came from a federal grant and $19,000 from the state, with the rest from the county.
West Shore Services of Allendale, Mich., built the new sirens. Currently, there are 18 older sirens, some of Korean War vintage. Those will be taken down.
Each rotating siren is mounted on its own 50-foot pole and covers four square miles. The warning signal sounds at 127 decibels, and the sirens have their own backup power source.
Dispatch centers at the Kenton County Police Department south of Independence and centers in Erlanger and Covington can activate the system.
Installation has mostly been problem-free, though Mr. Lusby said workers found a surprise Tuesday when they tried to dig a hole near the corner of Sixth and Craig streets in Covington.
“They went down four feet and hit an old building foundation,” Mr. Lusby said. “They had to move the hole slightly. It took 21/2 hours. All this was under an old traffic island, under the dirt.”
As loud and sophisticated as the system is, Mr. Lusby said there's no way everyone could be warned of a tornado.
“The outdoor sirens are part of a system,” Mr. Lusby said. “Everyone should have a tone-alerted weather radio in their homes. Today's homes are so well insulated, it would be impossible to warn everyone inside their homes.”
Kenton is not the only Northern Kentucky county upgrading its system. Boone County Emergency Management Director Bill Appleby this week applied for $139,000 in federal and state grants.
“What we're wanting, No. 1, is to add three new sirens,” Mr. Appleby said Wednesday. “And we're asking for enough funds to upgrade our system to put in a two-way digital system.”
Two of the sirens would be placed near Hebron and one would go near Union. Mr. Appleby said the digital upgrade would allow the county to activate a limited number of sirens in an emergency rather than the whole county.
Mr. Appleby also said the entire project would cost around $160,000, with the county paying about $21,000.
Campbell County is waiting for federal approval to begin using a $120,000 grant. The county will add another $40,000.
Ron Schneider, Deputy Director of Emergency Management, said 10 new sirens would be purchased and eight refurbished.
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