By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
One little siren with a big sound is causing a huge headache for Wurm’s Woodworking and residents on the west end of New Washington.
Valerie Sanderson, an owner and employee of Wurm’s Woodworking, brought up the issue at Monday night’s New Washington Village Council meeting. The business has played host to one of the village’s emergency sirens for at least 40 years, but changes to the testing system have caused havoc at Wurm’s Woodworking.
Sanderson said the siren is tested every Friday at noon for several minutes, rather than only being used during emergencies as in the past. The location of the siren, which is attached to a pole on the business’s property, coupled with the additional buildings constructed over the years has lent an eardrum-rattling nuisance for workers who break for lunch and others who take business calls when the sirens are tested.
Sanderson noted they have tried to find a solution from the Crawford County EMA and the Crawford County Sheriff’s Office for the past couple of years, but to no avail. Instead, Wurm’s Woodworking is looking to the local village council for some help. Sanderson offered a few options: change the current testing schedule, relocate the siren to a different area on the west end of town, or shorten the length of the test.
The village cannot change the schedule or the length of the test as it is controlled by the Crawford County EMA and tested by the Sheriff’s Office.
“We advise our employees, anybody who’s making deliveries, picking up, our venders and our customers who are there when that is about to happen to cover their ears and to attempt to move as far away from the siren as possible, preferably out of the range of 200 feet,” Sanderson explained. “But we can’t get 200 feet away from it because 200 feet actually encompasses three residences in the neighborhood. There are quite a few of us exposed to this every single week when this goes off.”
A person should only be exposed to continuous sound at 106 – 109 decibels for 3.75 minutes. Sanderson explained that the siren reaches over 130 decibels at 100 feet away, then pointed out that a jet engine reaches 138 decibels at 200 feet away.
“As you can see, we can’t protect our employees or ourselves from this type of sound,” Sanderson said, “but we’d appreciate it if you could give it consideration.”
Wurm’s Woodworking offered to have the siren moved to another site owned by the company off High Street, 1,125 feet northwest of the siren’s current location.
The company has also been paying for the electricity for the siren, as well as a streetlamp that is hooked up to the siren and is believed to be owned by the town.
Fire Chief Dick Ackerman said the siren was connected by an old telephone wire from the station and expressed some doubt about the ability to run another underground wire to a new location. He believed they would have to purchase a radio-controlled wire to work the siren if it was moved.
“I think we owe it to them to move it after all these years,” said Village Administrator Norm Lucius.
“Since the EMA is the cause of all this problem, why don’t we get them in and consult on this,” asked council member Scott Hiler. “Either put it higher, move it where they say it needs to go and we incur the cost to do it. Or we get rid of the sirens. It’s that simple.”
“I don’t know if there’s an easy answer,” Mayor Ben Lash countered. “We have an obligation to make sure it can be heard everywhere in town.”
Neither Lash nor the council members were aware that the town was not paying for electricity for the siren. Lash said he would begin research into the matter and contact Crawford County EMA Director Tim Flock.
The next New Washington Village Council meeting will take place at 7 p.m. on March 14.