Agenda - Council - 04/23/1985 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I City of Ramsey 15153 NOWTHEN BOULEVARD N.W., RAMSEY, MINNESOTA 55303 · (612) 427-1410 March 1, 1985 TO: Lloyd Schnelle FROM: Chief Auspos RE: Disaster Warning Sirens The meeting I attended at your direction on February 28, hosted by Bruce Wojack, dealt with the conversion of land line controlled dis- aster/attack warning sirens to control by radio telemetry. Bruce invited the cities of Ramsey, Andover and Lino to attend since those cities, while not now having a siren system at all, have indicated an interest in civil defense. A representative of the Healy-Ruff Co. was there to provide information on and answer questions about that c~mpany's product called the SIREN- CODER. Since we do not now have any sirens for disaster warning purposes, this product alone, was of no interest. It was brought out, however, that we could benefit if, along with other non-sirened communities and any communities switching frcm mechanical to electronic sirens, we went into a joint purchase agreement to buy the complete package. The cost of an electronic siren, installed on-site and ready to go, ranges from eight to ten thousand dollars, depending on sophistication and addition of the radio telemetry unit would increase that by eighteen hundred to two thousand dollars. This siren would operate on electric line voltage with a battery powered backup and would be controlled by an encoder at Central Commonications in the Anoka Courthouse in conjunc- tion with the National Weather Service. I have no knowledge of the range of these sirens and therefore no idea how many we would need to effectively cover Ramsey. I gathered from this me~ng however, that Federal and State money would be tight for the siren acquisition alone. Wojack and Anoka county are looking into a grant, however, to get the encoder (dispatching console located at Central Comm.) and each community would have to get their own decoders. This may be something the city would like to look into and if so, I will do further legwork on it, perhaps with the help of Anne, regarding the planning/grant end of things. I think that the city council should be the ones to accept or reject this concept since lack of sufficient warning (or any warning at all!) could be a very strong issue if we should be hit ~y wind or tornado as was Andover and Champlin last year.