Voters defeat siren levies

A plan to install sirens throughout Delaware County to warn residents and visitors of approaching tornadoes or other emergency situations appears dead. County voters overwhelmingly rejected two one-year levies for a countywide early warning siren system in Tuesday's election.

"I think the people have spoken," said Berlin Township trustee Phil Panzarella, who also was a member of the community committee that developed plans for the proposed countywide system.

"The important thing is it got on the ballot and people made up their minds," he said.

On the ballot was a 0.4-mill levy that would have raised about $2.5-million to establish the system.

The second levy was for 0.1-mill, and would have paid to maintain the system.

The first levy failed with 61 percent of the voters rejecting it, at 29,117 to 18,920. It would have cost taxpayers about $12 per $100,000 of home value.

The second failed by an even greater margin with 67 percent of those casting votes rejecting the 0.1-mill levy, which would have cost about $3 per $100,000 of home value and raised about $625,000. The vote was 32,086 to 15,593.

Panzarella said he wasn't surprised.

He attributed the loss to the current economy and the number of technological gadgets on the market that could serve as a warning system in case of a tornado or other emergency, such as iPhones and Blackberries.

"Would it have been nice to have to help with preparedness? Yes," said Brian Galligher, director of the county's emergency management agency. But he agreed with Panzarella that there are other ways to warn residents and visitors.

Many news channels use Twitter accounts or other social networking sites that will send out text messages in the event of an emergency, he said. And the county subscribes to "Code Red," that provides two types of warnings.

One requires no action by a resident and uses the county's 911 system to call people living in a specific area in case of an emergency, such as a chemical spill where evacuation might be necessary, he said.

The second is the weather warning part of Code Red and requires individuals to sign up for the service by going to the county's Web site, Galligher said.

During a tornado warning, the National Weather Service identifies the warning area on a map with a polygon, he said. Residents who have signed up for the service and live within that polygon will get a call telling them about the warning.

"The only downside of that is the (system) locates you based on the location you put in," primarily the residence where the phone is located, he said. If people are home that is fine, he said, but if they are not, the technology is not in place to route calls to cell phones.

Some parts of the county already have early warning systems. The city of Delaware, Scioto Township, and the villages of Galena and Sunbury would have been reimbursed for a portion of what it cost to install their systems had the levies passed.