Galesburg back to 13 functional tornado sirens

Galesburg once again has 13 operational tornado sirens after work was completed in moving one to Jason Wessels Park.

Previously, the siren was stationed at Silas Willard School but was relocated during the construction of the school’s new building.

Knox County Emergency Management Coordinator Tom Simkins said in November the siren had been moved and was waiting on electrical work to be completed.

Answering Alderman Angela Bastian’s concerns Tuesday about testing sirens for functionality Simkins says it’s impossible to guarantee that sirens will always go off.

“But we do have a monitor in the duty office in the police department that shows all 13 sirens and it feeds back, I don’t know how many times a day and it polls those sirens to make sure certain facets like the battery backups are working,” Simkins says. “I check those two to three times per week.”

Galesburg City Council approved paying the bill for moving the siren Tuesday night, despite the project going nearly $3,000 over what was expected.

The original intent was to have work completed by Sugden Electric with assistance from city forces for $5,000.

Council documents say the while the project was completed there were aspects of the job “outside the scope of city electrician’s expertise” but the work was done anyway due to the public interest of having functioning sirens during peak tornado season.

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