Tornado siren to give security to Galatians
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A new tornado siren is installed at the Galatia Municipal Building giving a degree of security to the village last hit by a destructive tornado in 2002.
Village Mayor Bob Harrawood said the siren has been two years in the works with 75-percent of the money funded with a grant though the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development program and 25-percent through village funds.
"It took us almost two years from the time we started the grant process," Harrawood said.
"Better late than never."
Village trustee Kenny Clark said the federal match did not arrive as soon as the village expected it to.
But a crew from Novacom of Herrin had the pole and siren in the ground between the municipal building and the grade school Monday morning. Novacom expects to wire it and test it later this week.
The siren will be triggered at the Galatia Fire Department through the transmission of a radio frequency, according to Novacom Wireless Communications Engineer Jon Brookmyer.
Novacom President Cris Trapani said the siren emits 129 decibels of sound at the source and 70 decibels at a radius of 1 1/8 mile.
"At 6,000 feet in any direction it's 70 decibels," Trapani said.
Trapani and Harrawood stressed the siren is intended as an outdoor warning siren.
"It's for people walking the dog, kids on the playground or people in the park," Trapani said.
"We always tell people to get weather radios."
Harrawood said people in their homes with the windows shut and televisions or air conditioners operating cannot expect to be able to hear the siren and a weather radio with a severe weather tone is the safest indoor warning system.
Clark expects to hear the siren just fine with his home next door to the municipal building.
Clark has vivid memories of the 2002 storm. He said it struck at 1:10 a.m., a time most all the town was asleep. The storm picked up the concrete veterans monument and it threatened his home.
"It blew the monument within 10 feet of my house," Clark said.
The storm also blew the swing set behind the monument into the exterior wall of the municipal building that then housed Galatia Fire Department. Clark remembers the swing impaling the wall and becoming a sort of landmark with many people taking photos of it.
At least three homes were severely damaged in the storm and a brick car wash bay collapsed on the police chief's cruiser with the chief inside, but there was no loss of life.
The swing set was reset, but still bears testimony of the powerful tornado. At eye-bolt connecting the swing's chain to the frame has been severely bent out of shape and could not be bent back without welding, Clark said.
Harrawood said the siren will be tested monthly, likely at the same time the Eldorado and Harrisburg sirens are tested, 10 a.m. the first Tuesday of the month.
<ul>
<li>
DeNeal receives e-mail at bdeneal@yourclearwave.com.</li>
</ul>