MANSFIELD — Richland County has plans to spend around $200,000 to upgrade its network of tornado sirens to digital from the current VHF status.
County commissioners on Tuesday voted to allow local Emergency Management Agency Director Rebecca Owens to seek requests for proposals to do the conversion work.
There are 48 tornado warning sirens in the county, including four in, and maintained by, the City of Shelby, according to Owens.
Plans for the digital upgrade have been in the planning process for a year, she said.
Commissioner Tony Vero said the meeting Tuesday had nothing to do with the F-2 twister that damaged houses in Plymouth Township on March 14. Funds for the upgrade will come from the county’s capital improvement budget.
“We are happy to report this (meeting) was already set prior to (last week’s storms. It’s something we have had in the works to make sure we have the latest in technology with tornado sirens,” he said.
Owens, hired in December 2022, said improving tornado sirens in the county was one she was tasked with not long after being hired.
She said when she began there were eight non-working sirens and 20 that needed some kind of repair.
“We were able to get those repaired and in doing so, VASU (Communications) discovered there was a need for additional repairs. Overall, we have completed those repairs to bring them all to functionality,” Owens said.
“We spent almost $52,000 to make that happen.”
Owens said that work was necessary to take the next step to upgrade the siren system to the digital Multi-Agency Radio Communication System used by first responders around the county.
“Our intent is simply to upgrade these sirens so that they are MARCS compatible,” she said.
Owens said advertisements seeking proposals will go out March 25 and again in April. She said her hope is to have a contract with a provider signed for work to begin in June and be complete by the end of May 2025.
Richland County Sheriff’s Office Capt. Jim Sweat, who helped lead the MARCS conversion for first responders around the county, said a digital system has many advantages over VHF, including reliability and economics.
“The purpose of us leaving the VHF system that we had was that it was not nearly as robust or as well maintained as what we are on now with the MARCS system.
“(In terms of economics), we did not want to, as a county, continue to maintain a VHS system solely for the tornado sirens when we’re moving everything else to MARCS.
He said current cost is $40,000 annually in site rent to maintain the two current VHF towers.
“So that will go away right there. It immediately frees up $40,000 from the 9-1-1 budget that we’re currently paying to help offset any of these costs that we have here,” Sweat said.
Commissioner Cliff Mears pointed to the fact the $200,000 investment would be paid back in five years, given Sweat’s numbers.
“Yes, sir, absolutely,” Sweat said, adding that every public safety agency, including the Mansfield Fire Department, has switched or is switching to the MARCS digital system.
“When we started this process five years ago, it wasn’t the most popular decision in town to move to MARCS. But now I can proudly say that, here in the very near future, every public safety agency in Richland County is either on MARCS or is in the process of transitioning to MARCS. So it’s come full circle,” Sweat said.
Even in today’s higher-tech world of smartphones, Owens noted there is still a need for tornado warning sirens.
“There still are a lot of rural areas in the county that rely on sirens,” she said.
“We also have an older population that doesn’t necessarily have a smartphone and get all of the alerts on their phones. So I really think that there still is very much a need for that.
“I think that in the future, moving forward, as we move into this project and others, we really need to take a look at ‘Do we need additional sirens throughout the county?’ ” Owens said.
The City of Mansfield, for example, has no tornado warning sirens in the county’s most populous city.
“If we have 5,000 people in downtown Mansfield on a Friday night during the summer in the Brickyard, there is no public awareness (or) alert system in the area to notify them of a (weather) situation,” Owens said.
She said she has had initial conversations on the topic with Mayor Jodie Perry, who took office in January.
“I am sure as soon as she gets a little further down her list of activities that we will have a conversation and really get something moving on that, as well,” Owens said.
“Just as a reminder again, those sirens are intended to be heard when you’re outside, not in your home,” she said.
(Below is a PDF of a map showing the location of 48 tornado warning sirens around Richland County.)