Alabama Board OKs Money to Fix Tornado Sirens

Authorities are trying to find money to help fix the outdoor weather sirens in Calhoun and Talladega counties.

The Alabama Regional Communication System Board of Directors agreed Tuesday to pay $1,108 to help fix the systems.

Other agencies will also have to help foot the bill for an outside engineer to examine the sirens, which have been randomly malfunctioning for the last several months, The Anniston Star reported.

Local engineers with McCord Communications and Motorola Solutions have been unable to determine the cause of the random outages on the sirens maintained by the Calhoun and Talladega county emergency management agencies. The engineers told the board it would have to pay for an outside consultant to get to the root of the problem.

The Communication System operates the 800 megahertz radio system that links the sirens.

At a work session meeting last week, Mike Fincher, a Communication System board member and director of safety at Calhoun County schools, suggested the costs for the engineer be apportioned equally among the Communication System, Motorola, McCord and the two counties’ emergency management agencies.

The Communication System is the first agency to agree to the costs.

The board of directors is working with Motorola to upgrade the 800 MHz system before the end of the year.