The Harrison City Council met Thursday, April 10, with Councilman Wayne Cone sitting in for Mayor Jackson.
The council acknowledged the passing of Peggy Jackson, the Mayor’s wife of 51 years. Mitch Magness said, “I’m sure I speak for the council when I say Peggy was just as much a part of this City’s success as Jerry. And she probably took more heat from some of his actions than she should have. She will be sorely missed.”
Under new business, COO/Engineer Wade Phillips proposed Resolution 1324 to sell some city-owned property on East Stephenson and East Central. The adjacent owners have used the lots as additional parking for many years, and they were unbuildable lots due to the floodplain restrictions. The Council approved.
Former councilman Jeremy Ragland was appointed to the CATPC (City Advertising Tourist Promotion Commission) to fill a vacancy left by Dr. Rodney Arnold. Ragland has been a council representative to CATPC in the past. The motion passed.
Under old business, Fire Chief Marc Lowery addressed the CodeRED and storm sirens for informational purposes only.
“It’s been brought to my attention some questions about our storm sirens and the CodeRED system, so I wanted to explain our process. When the fire department inherited the storm siren system, we realized they needed a lot of maintenance. In speaking to the city directors, I got a quote on what it would take to replace all five sirens. That was almost $200,000. So, we decided to break it down into phases. The Union Road Tower was failing last year, so we decided to present to the council that we replace that storm siren and control system. The control system is an updated, state-of-the-art system that works with the National Weather Service. When they issue a tornado warning for the city, it will set off the storm sirens. If the projected path is going to touch the city, it will set off the sirens. We’ve had some problems with sirens going off when it wasn’t necessary. So this new system takes all the guesswork out of it.”
The question was also asked about testing. “911 has been testing them at noon on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. If there is bad weather or they are busy, they don’t always get to do it. We are also setting up the new system to do it automatically,” Lowery said.
“Because so many questions had been asked, we placed firefighters at every siren location and tested them at noon. All were working just fine. But they are electronics, and we can never guarantee that something electronic will always work. The new system will allow us to see if the siren is working properly or having problems.”
‘I can’t stress enough that these are outdoor warning devices. They were never intended or built to warn people in their houses or cars. If you can hear them – that’s great. But it’s not always 100%,” he said. “That’s where the CodeRED system came into play. I was asked about “weather watches.” We feel like to keep this system from being overused; we need to keep it for extreme emergencies or storms that will affect the city.”
Councilwoman Gwen Hoffmann said, “I understand there is a plan to replace the rest of the sirens this year and in the next couple of years.”
“That is correct,’ Lowery said. “Last year, I brought it to the council, and we funded a third of the project. Since they are all working right now, maybe we can get through the storm season, and hopefully, this fall, we can replace two more until they have all been updated. I will have to come to you each time to see how it fits in the budget. So it’s not a guarantee, but I’m sure there are no arguments about the need.”
Councilman Josh Earl asked, “Just to be clear. Nothing is wrong with the storm sirens today. Correct?”
“Correct,” Lowery said. “Even the older ones are still set up to go off automatically by the new system. Our old ones turn, so the sound is kind of off and on. But the new ones are omnidirectional, so they just set the horns off. It’s a better siren.”
Liz Torgerson asked if there could be testing with the CodeRED system. “I signed up, but I don’t know if it works.”
“That’s a good idea,” Lowery agreed. “We’ve been running internal tests quite a bit. But we didn’t want to wear out people with testing. A monthly testing might not be a bad idea.”
Hoffmann asked, “The statement was made on social media that the city is funding Creekside, and that’s why you don’t have funds for storm sirens. Would you explain that, please?”
CFO Luke Feighert said, “Those kinds of funds are totally different funding pools. Yes, the general fund can give money to the fire department, like we did last year for the sirens. We can also give money to the police department if they need to add additional items. We can also give general funds money to the water department and street department if we need to. , This has always been the funding plan. But at no point in time has money been given to Creekside instead of these funding projects.”
Councilman Mitch Magness said, “To address that further, we used to start with a financial synopsis at the beginning of the year to remind everyone of how it works. All the funding to the city is regulated and audited for specific purposes. The public safety tax can only be spent on police and fire. They can’t use it for streets and roads. The infrastructure tax can only be used by public works for those projects. There is a misconception that all this money goes into one bank account. Even if it goes into one bank account, it is still segregated and used for those purposes. Those balances are audited yearly by the State.”
Magness continued, “Just because someone says it on social media does not make it true. If anyone has a question, they can call Luke or their council member.”
Mayor Pro Tem Wayne Cone invited Parks Director Chuck Eddington to the podium to share the weekend activities around the area.
“At our Equity Bank Baseball Softball Complex, we will have 41 baseball teams coming in for Saturday and Sunday,” Eddington said. “At Creekside, the Youth Center, the High School, and the Northark Gymnasium, more than 100 girls and boys travel teams will be playing basketball. We are going to have a lot of people in town this weekend. This is the first time we’ve had multiple events because now we have the facilities. It will be a great weekend for people to come and see what we have to offer. Also, Friday night, we have our first Dive-In Move at the indoor aquatics at 5:30 p.m.”