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The Case For Keeping Siren At Town Hall: Alerting The Public

The point of the siren, Arnfast says, is to notify as much of the public as possible that there’s an emergency and to notify firefighters to respond. The siren, which goes off about 24 times a year, is meant to be heard not just by those living within the town limits of Oriental but the surrounding area which is served by the Southeast Pamlico Volunteer Fire District. That includes people who live up the creeks and on the other side of the bridge.

The Southeastern Pamlico Volunteer Fire District includes Oriental and runs out to the Fulcher horse farm on Hwy 55 near Stonewall, to Trent Road, to River Dunes and up Kershaw Road, down to Janeiro and to the Dawson Creek Bridge. The siren may not be heard all over the district but says Arnfast, is best located at Oriental’s Town Hall, a central spot and population center where the most people can hear it.

Arnfast noted that the siren at Town Hall is also set up to let people know if a tornado is closing in on the area. If the main siren were to be moved to the fire station a mile and a half outside of Oriental’s center, it could be inaudible in neighborhoods such as the SailLoft community, he said, on the other side of the Oriental Bridge. Arnfast said that in the case of an unheard tornado warning, loss of life could occur.

“I don’t want to be the one making that decision” to put the siren farther away so that those people can’t hear the alert, said Arnfast. “I sure don’t think Bob Maxbauer should be making it, either.”

One argument for keeping the siren at Town Hall, Alan Arnfast says, is that it is “centralized, centralized, centralized.” It’s best there, in his view, because that’s where the most people can hear it – be they residents or firefighters – and that is the point of sounding the alarm.

Siren As Backup Alert For Firefighters

Keeping the siren at Town Hall makes it more likely that firefighters would hear it, Arnfast said, whether they are in their homes or out and about in town. Volunteer firefighter Eric Kindle backs that up. He says there are times at his Hodges Street home when his pager or radio or phone won’t send a signal, but he’ll know to respond to a fire because the siren has gone off.

Town Hall, undergoing renovations, as it appeared last Thursday. The Town Manager had earlier in the week that he thought the “aesthetic” of the new building would be hurt by having the fire siren behind it. He relented on Tuesday to keep it at Town Hall but on Thursday was agreeing with the Mayor to test the siren at other locations.

Arnfast noted at the Town Board’s meeting on October 29, the siren is a back-up — required by the firefighting insurance agency, ISO — to alert firefighters’ when their pagers and radios don’t work. Meeting that ISO requirement contributes to the fire district’s high rating — and the relatively low fire insurance rates for homeowners here.

Question Of Fairness In Siting The Siren

The Fire Department also wants to keep the siren where it’s been for more than 50 years because, Arnfast says, it’d be unfair to site it in a different neighborhood — or as he put it, to “screw the people” who would then have it placed in their midst. Those who bought homes in the center of town near the fire siren, knew it was there when they moved in, he says. To talk about putting it in to a new place is to kick a “hornet’s nest.”

Arnfast noted that at the Monday meeting Mayor Sage told the audience that he lived a block from Town Hall and its fire siren. Sage said then that he could sleep thru the siren when it went off, but that his wife did not.

Test Credibility Questioned

As to the Mayor’s idea of testing the siren a mile and a half from Town Hall, Arnfast questioned what hoisting the 700-pound siren in the air near the fire station would prove.

Wary after several months of dealing with Town officials on the siren siting issue (and having seen a promise of keeping it at Town Hall reversed before) Arnfast suggested that the hoist-test results could, in his words, “be manipulated” to make the fire station appear a better site than it is.

For instance, he said, the winds blowing near Oriental — and their ability to carry sound — could affect the test.

Alan Arnfast, fire chief of the Oriental area’s volunteer fire department, at the Monday October 29 special Town Board meeting on the fire siren. At left is Missy Tenhet, one of the many residents at the meeting who backed the fire department’s stand to keep the fire siren at Town Hall — and not move it to any other neighborhood in town.

As sailors here know, the prevailing winds in Oriental are generally out of the south. Arnfast said that if the siren were tested at the fire station on a day when the less frequent northeast or northwest winds were blowing, they might carry the siren’s sound more in to town than might normally be heard when a real emergency came up. When prevailing southerlies blow, they would push the noise from the fire station — which is already on the northern edge of town — even further away from town and the bulk of the population.

Resident: Get The Siren Back Up At Town Hall Quickly

Missy Tenhet, who rallied her neighbors last week upon hearing that their residential neighborhood near the Oriental Woman’s Club was being considered as a home for the siren, expressed frustration at the news that Mayor Sage and Town Manager Maxbauer were calling for the tests that could undo the deal to keep the siren at Town Hall.

“The Mayor and Town Manager need to stop changing the deal,” said Tenhet. “They need to stop lying.”

Tenhet noted that the siren was a back-up for the radios and pagers used to notify firefighters that their services were needed, and that it had already been down for the Town Hall renovations for several months.

She urged the Town to get the siren back over Town Hall quickly. “We need that back-up back up.” said Tenhet “The Town Manager and Mayor need to get that siren up at Town Hall as fast as possible.”

She is calling on other residents of town to turn out, despite it being Election Night, to show support of the Fire Department’s position.

At least one commissioner appears ready to make that the Board’s official position, as well. After Thursday’s meeting and again on Friday, Commissioner Larry Summers said that he thought Town Hall was where the siren should go and that he was ready to vote on that at Tuesday’s meeting.

That Election Night meeting starts at 7p and will take place at the First Baptist Church on Broad Street, where meetings have been happening since Hurricane Irene flooded Town Hall.

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Posted Monday November 5, 2012 by Melinda Penkava