The Siren Board

JasonC wrote:

soccerdude7330 wrote:What is the contact info for these people? I want to give them a call and get some quotes to get our county a siren system.

I'm really serious about getting the while county a siren system. I know its not gonna be cheap, but remember I won't be paying for this.

Anyone with this info, reply, PM or email me.

Thanks!

It doesn't quite work like that. Your county's government have to first decide it wants a siren siren system. Then they have to submit a RFP (Request For Proposal) in which dealers receive. The dealers than have to come out on site, make many landscape measurements, map the system, demos, ect. This alone is many thousands of dollars, and doesn't guarantee anybody anything. Only then, if the officials are satisfied with the system, they then have to get the money (which also isn't easy to do, and takes a long time). While this may be more feasible for more populated areas of tornado alley, it's just not going to fly for a rural county in Tennessee; there are more pressing issues than a multi-million dollar siren system for a threat that doesn't come often. Even if you send an e-mail to BVPS, they aren't goign to be able to do anything anyway, like I said, the government has to make the first step (on large systems), not the dealer.

With that said, if you want a siren system, your best bet is to talk to the incorporated towns in your county, and see if they would want one. You will have much better luck going that route, not through the county.

Screw BVPS, they want too much for their used stuff.

soccerdude7330 wrote:What is the contact info for these people? I want to give them a call and get some quotes to get our county a siren system.

I'm really serious about getting the while county a siren system. I know its not gonna be cheap, but remember I won't be paying for this.

Anyone with this info, reply, PM or email me.

Thanks!

Google is your friend... http://www.bluevalleypublicsafety.com

Charlie, if your county gets a grant to put in sirens then the bidding has to be open to all vendors. You can't just pick Sentry out of the bunch. In fact it's the law. So the best thing for you to do is just put out an RFP for the system requirements that your county/city needs and let various vendors submit proposals. If you don't, you are going to be in a major legal mess.

....West Shore Fire beats them out though, they literally have hundreds of new and used sirens in their lot though:

I don't know. Someone could have 1000 old Thunderbolts piled up in a yard filling up with rainwater and it wouldn't be as impressive as those 5 Thunderbolts up on poles up side by side like that. That's pretty dang cool!
Wonder if they have power to them?

I'm going to give Sentry a call Monday and get a quote on a county-wide system so that I will have something to look at and show the board how much grant money we will need.

Sentry will probably laugh at you if you do that. What are they going to do, give you a W.A.G. of how many sirens the county needs over the phone?

Like Jason said, a coverage survey has to be done by several companies and then they submit bids for the system. It's a big deal to do a countywide system. You can't just call around and start getting quotes. The most you can really do is start a public awareness campaign and get the communities in the county interested in putting up a system. If you drum up enough support then they will take it from there. What's the population of the county? If it's primarily a rural area there won't be enough money to do a full county system. Each town would probably do their own little system. Keep in mind that it'll take years to get it done too. You have to be in it for the long haul if you want to get them interested in it. You'll most likely have to drive all around the county seeing people with communities to convice them they need a countywide system.

CDV777-1 wrote:You'll most likely have to drive all around the county seeing people with communities to convice them they need a countywide system.

Everybody in Dickson County that I've talked to is all for this, 110% and are wondering why sirens haven't already been installed throughout the whole county.

Heck, Slayden just got hit Friday with a possible F-1 destroying a home. A few years back Charlotte got hit by an F-2 and made a huge mess. Again, no warning system in place.

All I want is to get a dang siren system already. You guys might think I'm doing this just for kicks, I'm here to tell you that I'm doing this to prevent any lives being lost in the future from us not having any kind of early warning system in place throughout the county.

I understand it won't be easy, but since you guys are telling me that this is going to be harder than I'm thinking it is, then tell me what needs to be done. I've already talked with someone from the Community Board and they said all I need to do is come up with a paper on what I need the grant money for, what I'm going to do with it, and then come up with an estimate on how much it will cost to do this all together, including the sirens and installation costs.

I know that it has to be open to all vendors, but we already have one Sentry 16V1T-B in place, and it'd be silly not to finish off with them.

I also have a county estimated plan for the future system as well, as my dad told me a plan would be good to start off with. If anyone wants to see it, let me know. It's in a Streets and Trips file format.

CDV777-1 wrote:What's the population of the county? If it's primarily a rural area there won't be enough money to do a full county system.

Here's Dickson's Website:
http://www.cityofdickson.com/

Here's some info on Dickson County:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dickson_County,_Tennessee

People live all throughout the county, especially in the rural areas.

My suggestion for this would be to encourage the Cities and Towns in Dickson to install their own systems, use Reverse 911 in the rural parts of the county(especially since it is to my knowledge that Dickson Co. is pretty hilly and Mountainous), and encourage everyone in the county to Purchase a Weather Radio.

Yes, Reverse 911 has its flaws, but you are more likely to get a Grant for Reverse 911 than a County Wide Siren System. (Also A Grant would probably only cover a SMALL Portion of a Siren System.)

soccerdude7330 wrote:

CDV777-1 wrote:You'll most likely have to drive all around the county seeing people with communities to convice them they need a countywide system.

Everybody in Dickson County that I've talked to is all for this, 110% and are wondering why sirens haven't already been installed throughout the whole county.

Heck, Slayden just got hit Friday with a possible F-1 destroying a home. A few years back Charlotte got hit by an F-2 and made a huge mess. Again, no warning system in place.

All I want is to get a dang siren system already. You guys might think I'm doing this just for kicks, I'm here to tell you that I'm doing this to prevent any lives being lost in the future from us not having any kind of early warning system in place throughout the county.

I understand it won't be easy, but since you guys are telling me that this is going to be harder than I'm thinking it is, then tell me what needs to be done. I've already talked with someone from the Community Board and they said all I need to do is come up with a paper on what I need the grant money for, what I'm going to do with it, and then come up with an estimate on how much it will cost to do this all together, including the sirens and installation costs.

I know that it has to be open to all vendors, but we already have one Sentry 16V1T-B in place, and it'd be silly not to finish off with them.

I also have a county estimated plan for the future system as well, as my dad told me a plan would be good to start off with. If anyone wants to see it, let me know. It's in a Streets and Trips file format.

Soccerdude, not to rain on your endevor but why should you be doing all the legwork for those elected or on the county payroll who are the individuals that are supposed to be doing the job? I'm not trying to diminsh your effort but IMO you would get better/quicker results packing the Council or Commissioner Meeting with a couple of dozen people every time they meet hammering them over sirens. Commissioners rarely listen to one or two individuals. The only time they take any action is when the council chambers are packed with wall to wall people demanding some action or suffer a great embarrassment in the press. The people you talk to need to show up at the meetings and raise hell every time the doors open.

CDV777-1 wrote:

I'm going to give Sentry a call Monday and get a quote on a county-wide system so that I will have something to look at and show the board how much grant money we will need.

Sentry will probably laugh at you if you do that. What are they going to do, give you a W.A.G. of how many sirens the county needs over the phone

No, I'm talking about a price quote, not a coverage map. I have the coverage map taken care of, I just want to know a price for a single siren or what not.

If they're going to laugh at me for asking for a price then apparently they're not a good siren manufacturer are they?