The village of Pleasant Hill hopes to have their severe weather warning siren operational by month’s end- if not sooner.
The Pike County village has been without a working storm siren ever since an electrical issue damaged the system several years ago.
Repairs to the system are estimated to cost approximately $1,500.00. Local fundraising efforts have raised just over $2,000.00.
Pleasant Hill Fire Protection District Treasurer Rawn Hart said that initial work on the system has begun, and so far the damage seems to be less severe than officials first thought.
“They are supposed to be back this week, hopefully to get everything up and running. We are shooting for the first of the month to have it fully operational. At first we really didn’t know what it was. But when C & K came down last week, he found a fuse that was blown, so that to us was kind of a blessing, I’d guess you would say, because we didn’t know if it was in the siren itself, or if it was in the control box. So far we hope it is limited to the control box. He’s going to bring a whole new one down that can be activated by the emergency dispatch folks.”
The siren, once used to notify volunteer firefighters of a fire call in the community, had to be manually activated at the fire house when last in use. The new control box will allow emergency dispatch to remotely notify residents in the area, giving them more time to find shelter from severe weather.
Any funds not used on the update will be set back for phase 2 of the project, which will go toward the purchase of a second siren for the community.
“what we have been talking about is putting up a second siren up in the city park area, but no decisions have really been made about that. It’s kind of in it’s infancy in talking about it, because we are going to have to build the cost into our budget to cover it, but hopefully it will not be long.”
For information on the project, contact Rawn Hart at 217-316-9744.
Donations toward phase 2 of the project can be mailed to:
Pleasant Hill Fire Protection District
P.O. Box 202
Pleasant Hill, Illinois 62366
Attention: Siren Fund.