Well, since the news has not yet broken on the board yet, I’ll make it official here. As many of you know, Northeast Ohio was home to four ACA Allertor 125’s (the only in the region) in Knox Township in Columbiana County. These Allertors were completely refurbished, restored and reinstalled and dedicated on July 5, 2013 by a Mr. Carver (one of the Knox Township trustees). They belonged to Beaver Valley Nuclear Power Station’s old Siren System prior to FENOC’s (FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Company, now FirstEnergy Solutions) siren upgrade to all Equinoxes at both Perry Nuclear Power Plant and Beaver Valley Nuclear (initially started at BVPS in 2002 with 2001-SRN’s, SRNB’s, and later 2001-130’s being installed before the rest of the ACA System was removed and Equinoxes went up in the remaining locations) in 2011 and 2012. Beaver Valley was the first plant upgraded.
Knox Township acquired five Allertor 125’s (two of which are confirmed to be ex-BVPS siren numbers 135 and 76, the other decals were painted over and are unreadable) in 2012 after the upgrade and completely refurbished them inside and out. Unfortunately, they added third party two-tone radios to the control cabinets themselves. These radios were not installed properly and thus, the system does not work all the time. The Township decided last year it would be best to replace all five sirens instead of getting new radios (when they were at Beaver Valley, they ran off two-way FC controllers) for them, as they did not realize this was the problem (as the system does not always activate on the old radios) and purchased one Sentry 3V8-H-B, and four Sentry 14V-AC’s (three phase) from C & K Early Warning Systems in Litchfield. The sirens were delivered to Knox Township (presumably) late last year and were kept in storage until the township could install them.
The fifth Allertor was blown down in a strong storm several years ago and was removed after being irreparably damaged (this was the unit replaced with the 3V8-H-B on Tuesday). The four new 14V’s were installed on Friday, March 22, 2019. Knox Township is removing the old motor starters and installing new ones in the existing ACA cabinets (per an email from C&K; I inquired about the new sirens) and is also keeping the old radios in the cabinets as well (which means their new system will be just as unreliable as the previous one... unfortunately they didn't do their homework and put 2 and 2 together).
Instead of having these four old sirens go to waste (as they were full restored and refurbished back in 2013), I had a plan to get these sirens along with a friend of mine who is also familiar with sirens as well, cosmetically restore them and repair them as needed, and donate them to my town for installation, as we are currently lacking siren coverage (we only have one siren, a 2001-130, installed in 2017, and it only covers about 10% of the entire town), and we do not have the funding necessary to pay for new sirens (one 2001-130 set us back about $32, 000). Per the Federal Signal sound study done at the time, at least four new sirens would need to be installed to provide full coverage, and doing this would provide the full coverage necessary for the entire Village to be alerted in an emergency should persons be outdoors (one siren will be placed near a county metro park which gets very crowded on the weekends and this is an area which existing siren coverage does not reach). They would also be in township limits despite being owned and operated by the village (which is who we plan to give them to) so chances are I'd have to present it to them twice.
That being said, when we pick up the Allertors, hopefully soon in May (we are still awaiting final approval from Knox Township, but to our knowledge the sirens have been saved for us), the only existing control equipment we would receive will be the three phase motor starter (and I am not sure yet if we will even get that equipment as I am unsure as to whether or not it was saved for us); we requested that the starters be saved, but have not heard back from the Township Trustee in charge of the project since, however we have been actively working to get in contact with him personally.
The sirens would be hooked up with just their motor starters to a two-way FC controller (I’m not quite sure which kind we’d need but FFS would probably figure that out) (as we use a Commander system with a computer interface at the police station/regional dispatch center in the village for siren activation).
My question is, is this possible? Based on what I have read in all the applicable installation manuals, it should work as I have seen Federal Signal sirens such as the STH-10 hooked up in this way. We have three phase power available at each siren site and would be willing to work with the utility to get that figured out if needed. If Knox Township (where we are getting the sirens from) does not provide the motor starters, where would I get four motor starters for 4 three-phase ACA Allertor 125’s?
I’d assume they’re not cheap either, and since I am donating them to the village afterwards (I would oversee and assist with the install to make sure it follows ACA procedures), I am trying to save them as much money as possible but I want to give them four working sirens that will last them many years while making a significant contribution to public safety in my community (as this is the community I reside in), but I’m not made of money either as I am a student about to graduate from high school.
The Village would be paying for the radios, as they have to get them from Federal Field Services (Northeast Ohio’s regional Federal Signal dealer), as well as some of the installation costs, and I would be overseeing the installation to make sure it follows proper installation procedures and processes that ACA set for the Allertor 125. These Allertors are three phase models and were manufactured in the early 1980’s, but FFS would probably take care of most of the install and we’d just be there to oversee that it’s done to ACA specs and install guidelines.
This is all still in the works at this point, because if we obtain the sirens we will be refurbishing them first before presenting the project to the Village (we want to make sure we have everything done with the sirens before they go buying the new radios and paying for the installation). I just decided to post this now in April because today I mailed a letter to the Knox Township trustee that offered the sirens to us as I have not heard back from him via email since late March and figured mailing him a letter might get his attention better, but anyways, any answers to these questions would be appreciated. Feel free to reply here or PM me, doesn't really matter to me which you decide to choose.
Thanks for any input!