by Phil Keren
Editor
Silver Lake -- The village's two early warning system sirens will be upgraded during the spring after Village Council's recent approval of a contract for that work.
Village Council on April 21 OK'd a $5,700 agreement with Mitchell Communications to convert the two sirens in the village from an analog system to a two-way digital version.
Village Police Chief Gary DeMoss said he expects the upgrades to be finished "within the next three, maybe four weeks." DeMoss explained the new system will be able to both receive a signal and send it back to the dispatch center so that workers can monitor "its performance."
Right now, the sirens can only receive a signal and DeMoss said that means dispatch center workers "don't know for sure if they're on or not."
The village's first early warning siren was installed at the end of Lakeland Parkway in 1997, and a second siren was put up along Kent Road in 2005.
"They just alert people to take action," said DeMoss.
Silver Lake will switch from Stow to Cuyahoga Falls for fire, EMS and dispatch services on July 15. Once that occurs, DeMoss said the testing of the two Silver Lake sirens will take place at the same time of the month as the testing of the seven sirens in Cuyahoga Falls.
Currently, Silver Lake tests its sirens on the first Monday of the month at 6 p.m. The Falls sirens are tested on the first Thursday of the month at 10 a.m.
The sirens are activated when there is a tornado warning for the immediate area, but Falls Fire Chief Paul Moledor has said they could also be sounded for an Amber Alert, a hazardous materials spill, or another "citywide" emergency.
E-mail: pkeren@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-686-3940