Tag Archives: Tornado Sirens

UPDATED: From the Franklin Police Department and Alderman Steve Olson

1 Reply

Received this email from Franklin Alderman Steve Olson this morning and felt it was important to post.

Eugene T. Comiskey

From: “Steve Olson” <steve-olson@wi.rr.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 15, 2012
Subject: FPD needs your help
To: “Undisclosed Recipients” <solson@franklinwi.gov>

Dear Neighbors:

 Please help the Franklin Police find this gentleman:

 We are searching for a missing 81 year male, Eugene T. Comiskey of 7716 Maple Ridge Ct.  Last seen around 5PM yesterday in the area of S. 76th & W. Terrace Dr.  He is 6 ft, 195 lbs, gray hair, green eyes wearing /glasses, maroon long sleeve shirt & khaki pants.

 If you see Mr. Comiskey please call the Franklin Police Department at 425-2522 or 911.

 Thanks.

 Ald. Olson

  

 

 

 

UPDATE  3/16: I didn’t get home from picking up my daughter from UW- Whitewater until late last night so this is the first chance I had to update this notice. Thanks to Aimee Schlueter (911 dispatcher and candidate for FPS Board of Education) for commenting that Mr. Comiskey had been found. I was also pleasantly surprised to get the message that Mr. Comiskey was found from the City of Franklin Emergency Notification System which sent my cell phone the message that he had been found. Earlier in the day, the Notification System sent the message Mr. Comiskey was missing  to all Franklin Residents that had subscribed to Emergency text notifications from the City of Franklin Emergency Notification System.  As I have noted before the notification system can do much more that the outdated Tornado Siren system we paid $150,000 for last year and for considerably less cost.

Blogger PostGoogle+Google BookmarksYahoo BookmarksShare

In Case you Missed this on Fox 6 News

2 Replies

In the attached Fox6 news story Oconomowoc Mayor James Daley says it would be a waste of money to keep funding a system they’ve used just twice the past five years. The Mayor is referring to the Tornado Sirens (the same brand as the ones Franklin just spent $150,000 after Mayor Taylor and CCP Taylor pushed to have them installed). Mayor Daley says, “What has the greatest benefit to the community? A siren that goes off once every two and a half years or a full-time police officer or firefighter that has an everyday presence and benefit to the community. I think that choice is fairly simple.”

Mayor Daley urged the common council to shut down the other five instead of replacing one broken siren. The other five sirens currently work.

Outdoor sirens were originally designed to warn civilians of air raids during World War Two. They came into widespread use during the Cold War as part of the civil defense system in case of a nuclear attack.

On the other hand, Fox6 news contacted Franklin Fire Chief Jim Martin, since Franklin was the last city in Milwaukee County to get Tornado Sirens just this past spring. Chief Martin stated for Fox6 News, “When you’re outside and kids are playing in the park or whatever and they hear those sirens. They know what that means.”

Fox6 continues on that the key word in that quote is “outside“. To protect yourself inside, experts recommend an all-hazard weather radio. A relatively inexpensive device that goes off like an alarm clock when the National Weather Service issues a warning.

After all the public service effort to promote weather radios, the truth is most people still don’t have one. However, up until June 30th FOX6News, Midland Radio and Walgreens was  promoting a weather radio for $30.

Just a reminder that Franklin does have an instant alert that you can subscribe to free that will call your cell phone or your home phone when their is a Tornado Warning or another impending disaster in Franklin. This will contact you if you are inside or outside.  Here is the link in case you have yet to subscribe: Link to Notification System.
 

 

 

 

Blogger PostGoogle+Google BookmarksYahoo BookmarksShare

Emergency Notification System (ENS or Reverse 911) Up and Running

1 Reply

I got a call from my adopted Alderman Steve Olson (no one ever hears from Doug Schmidt in Franklin’s 5th District) that the City of Franklin’s Emergency Notification System or better know to some as Reverse 911 was up and running. You may remember me posting about this last September when this was brought forward and approved by the Technology Commission then later OK’d by the Council. Back in October we paid for the system through a $20,000 grant but it was put on hold until now for implementation (no doubt to coincide with the Air Raid sirens the city installed for Tornado’s). Unlike those horns, where ever you are, you can get either a text or voice message to let you know when their is a Tornado headed for Franklin. This may come in handy if you don’t live in Franklin (but have family here) or you don’t work in Franklin and can’t hear those sirens. It might also come in handy if you have a elderly parent or family member that you want to make sure knows about impending tornadoes, in case they can’t hear the siren from inside of their house as many can’t with modern well insulated homes.

Either way, we now have both systems. The one big difference is that you can have either a text message send directly to you or a phone call. In addition their are options for a voluntary opt-in of non emergencies such as:

  • Notification of a temporary or emergency change to the regular solid waste and recycling pick-up schedule
  • Notification of Declaration of Snow Emergency (includes parking restrictions)
  • City road closures and local paving or construction projects

Please Note the last three contacts are only made between 8:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.

For more information please see the city’s web site page FRANKLIN NOTIFICATION SYSTEM.

Blogger PostGoogle+Google BookmarksYahoo BookmarksShare

ENS (Emergency Notification System) or Reverse 911 is Coming to Franklin

1 Reply

In a message from Mark Luburda to the Technology Commission this past Friday, Mark wrote:

The Common Council did approve your motion with a slight modification in the event Code Red would not modify their terms or price.  In that circumstance, the Mayor had the authority to consider a different vendor.  In the end, Code Red would not adequately modify their terms.  They would not eliminate the $10,000 buy-out if we terminated the contract for a different vendor sooner than the full 5-years.  I worked with a second vendor who needed one minor code change, but in the end their tech division said that they could not commit to having it completed early next year. 

The good news, however, is that a third company – one with which we were not previously aware – was found that provided the core service which was the basis of our review (Provide a voice call for tornado warnings based National Weather Service geo-codes).  Through much effort, we were able to complete the review of the service and contract negotiations before (just hours before) the deadline on the grant.  Although the service is probably a little lower on the full-service spectrum, it did receive positive reviews from current customers (including the City of Madison which uses it to notice storm/parking alerts, but not for tornados).  Following are examples of its more basic service:  voice calls are all computer generated text-to-voice and not where we record our message in our own voice; mapping is Google maps-based; and the polygon mapping tool is not quite as robust but is clearly sufficient.  The bottom line was that its cost was more in line with the other companies (except Code Red) but this company (Inspiron) could match that core service.  As such, the $20,000 grant provides for a full two-year service contract to evaluate if the base level service is sufficient.  If it is, then there is no reason to pay twice as much for Code Red.  If it isn’t, we would know and could move to a higher-end service.  On the other hand, if we start with the higher end service, we would quite likely want/need to switch out to try the other service once we were reliant on general fund resources, especially since it is nearly twice as much.  In the coming weeks we will prepare the administrative procedures and final policy guidance needed for implementation.

Code Red was the first choice of the Technology Commission, given the parameters and information we were given. However, Inspiron (which was not on the original list of vendors) will provide us with the capability to contact all the citizens of Franklin or family of the elderly (if their family’s opt in) when there is a Tornado or an Emergency facing the citizens of Franklin. We will not have to depend on the ancient technology of an obsolete horn system we have currently contracted close to $150,000 for and will bring us to par with our neighbors in Oak Creek.

I for one will be one of the first to make sure ALL my family gets notified on their cell phones for these emergencies.

Here is Inspiron’s website so you can check them out: LINK

Inspiron's Notification System is WENS

WENS is currently use in Madison

Blogger PostGoogle+Google BookmarksYahoo BookmarksShare

I am not going to say it ….

2 Replies

I am not going to say “I told you so” about using archaic technology after hearing news of the malfunctioning tornado siren in Eagle last night, or the 20% failure of the Milwaukee County test of the Tornado Sirens or even the Germantown tornado siren that went off in the middle of the night when there was no bad weather anywhere around.

I am not going to say that this archaic technology is riddled with problems and that many people just ignore them.

I am not going to say that people should be responsible enough themselves to be aware of bad weather coming,  even though all local media had been blasting it all afternoon.  In a Todays TMJ4 story one woman says “We were in the house, my husband was in the bedroom.  I had just gotten out of the shower.  We had the TV on.  I could hear the continual warnings.  Lights had started to flicker.  All of a sudden, I felt tremendous pressure in my ears, and I could tell that the weather was severely changing very quickly. ” Do ya think so? Say didn’t anyone teach you that you shouldn’t take a shower in a thunderstorm lady?

I am just going to let you read about them and let you say it for me.

  • TMJ4 - Story about Eagle’s Tornado and the siren failure where officials have not yet determined why tornado warning sirens did not work Monday night.
  • Kevin Fischer’s Blog – That includes a chastisement from Alderman Steve Taylor
  • Germantown Ooops – But it worked!
  • Milwaukee County Siren Test- See Scott Thinness’s comments - In Milwaukee County 1 out of every 5 siren failure is not really that bad in a test or is it!

The debate will continue . . .

Blogger PostGoogle+Google BookmarksYahoo BookmarksShare

Not Even Worth Writing About.

Leave a reply

I am not going  write a complete blog on the stupidity of the Common Council approving the Tornado Sirens for Franklin. The fact that we have taken backward steps just to be like the rest of Milwaukee County using outdated technology is beyond imagination.

But as Alderman Doug Schmidt promised that he would blend the old Franklin with the new -  you just did Doug, with your yes vote of 1930′s technology .

By the way, for those of you interested, the city hoas also approve copies of the council meeting on REEL to REEL tape from the brand new stereo system they approved last month! This will enhance their cassette and 8-track collection of past council meetings.

 

Blogger PostGoogle+Google BookmarksYahoo BookmarksShare

Be Ready for this after Tonights Common Council Meeting

2 Replies

Malfunctioning sirens wake Germantown at 4 a.m.

 

Posted: May 18, 2010 6:08 a.m.

Germantown residents got an early-morning wake-up call when the village’s tornado sirens sounded just after 4 a.m.

A dispatcher at the Germantown Police Department said the system malfunctioned and went off unexpectedly. The sirens did do their job and got the attention of the residents, prompting many calls to the department, she said.

The story can be found at 

http://www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/94080264.html

I feel safer already!

Blogger PostGoogle+Google BookmarksYahoo BookmarksShare