Some additional safety for local residents, especially those caught outdoors during severe storms, will soon be active in more areas of Clinton County.
Clinton County EMS Director Lucas Abner said the four new, state-of-the art outdoor sirens have now arrived and have been put up. They should be ready for full activation by early November.
Electrical work was to be done on the four sirens this week, and an additional crew will come in and program and test the system.
Abner said the sirens will be tested monthly along with the other sirens already in place in the city and county.
One of the sirens is in a location which already had a siren in place, but which was no longer working and was not repairable, that being at the Cave Springs voting house location.
The three new locations for the outdoor sirens include the Davis Chapel voting house area, Maupin Church, and Smith’s Chapel Church.
The sirens cost $102,316 with the Clinton County Fiscal Court approving funds received under the federal American Rescue Plan Act or (ARPA).
The process of purchasing the additional warning sirens began in March of this year and should be active by early next month.
The addition of the four sirens brings the total number of outdoor warning sirens in the county to 16, three of which are based in or near the city limits of Albany.
Those three areas in or near the city limits include South Albany near Reeves Trailer Court and Albany Redi-Mix, the Albany Elementary School, and Clinton County Middle School.
Abner informed the public that sirens are tested the first Tuesday of each month at 10 a.m. local time, weather permitting. If actual severe weather could be in the forecast on the test date, the test is cancelled until the next month as to not falsely alarm residents.
“All the sirens in the county were working during the last test,” said Abner, who added the four  new sirens should be included in the next test date, the first Tuesday of November.
The EMS Director said local Emergency Management worked with a company, West Shore Coverage, to help place the additional sirens in areas that had the least outdoor warning coverage.
“They are the most up-to-date sirens available and rotate to give the best sound possible,” Abner added.
Although outdoor warning sirens are a safety net for many during severe weather and other emergencies, Abner stressed the word “outdoor” when it comes to warning people of severe weather and advocated more for Code Red phone and/or internet alert systems.
The word “outdoor” means just that,” he said. “People can primarily hear the sirens only when they are outside.”
He noted that many people have said they didn’t hear a siren go off if they were inside their home, in their basement, or other indoor location, Abner said that is where the Code Red alert system would be more beneficial to more people.
Usually the outdoor sirens can only be heard in structures that are located in a close proximity to the actual siren poles.
Although he said outdoor sirens were extremely important to anyone outside during severe weather, he warned to never depend on hearing them if inside a home or building.
“I encourage people to sign up for the Code Red Alert system,” he said, noting that instant severe weather watches and warning are issued directly to a person’s phone, whether it be a cell phone or land line.
The EMS Director said the best and easiest way to sign up to receive the Code Red alerts was to visit their Facebook page at Clinton County Kentucky Emergency Management. He said the tab for receiving the alerts is at the top of the page and that will work you through the process of signing up to receive messages.
Abner was grateful for the assistance from the fiscal court in obtaining funding for the additional outdoor sirens, which will increase safety for many residents in areas where the sirens were installed.
Abner also briefly addressed a couple more projects that are in the works, including the long awaited “safe houses.”
Although projected to still be at least a couple of years down the road in actually becoming a reality, the process remains in the works, with the engineering processing now completed.
The project, which is being funded with grants, is now awaiting approval from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and the Kentucky Emergency Management agency.
Once constructed, the safe houses, designed to shelter residents during severe weather, such as tornadoes, will include four total structures that can house up to 100 people each.
Abner also discussed property for the new radio communication tower that was recently purchased by the county and located on a mountainous area behind the Emergency Services buildings.
Abner said last Thursday that cleanup at the site was complete, and anchors, new sections and guide wires would be installed throughout the rest of this month.
Once the tower work is complete, Abner said he feels it may “double receiving and transmitting power for each frequency.”
Towers are used by all emergency personnel to send and receive messages and in some areas, problems of not connecting or poor transmissions has been an issue.
Abner further said that once the tower is up and running, the county may reach out to companies who provide broadband and high speed internet service for a way to assist such companies in providing more broadband and internet service to more areas of the county.