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Published Wednesday, February 22, 2012 in Local

County approves grant application for early warning weather sirens

By Sarah Fay Campbell

The Newnan Times-Herald

Coweta County will be applying for a grant to increase its number of proposed early warning weather sirens.

Tuesday night, the Coweta County Board of Commissioners voted to approve the application for a matching grant from the Georgia Emergency Management Agency/Federal Emergency Management Agency for the early warning sirens.

The county picked two sites for the grant-funded sirens, with one alternate site, said Assistant County Administrator Kelly Mickle. The sites are Firestation 7 at Northgate High School, and the Hunter Complex, with Whitlock Park as an alternate site.

If the grant is approved for all three sirens, the county's 25 percent match would be approximately $22,820, Mickle said.

"This is a part of a larger siren project that will include sirens at all of our recreation facilities and other outdoor areas where you have large crowds gather," Mickle said.

Those sirens are proposed to be funded with $400,000 from the 2013 Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax. Coweta voters will decide March 6 whether or not to renew the one-percent sales tax.

"Staff is asking that you guys approve this grant application, contingent upon the renewal of SPLOST, since that would be how we propose to pay the match," Mickle said.

After the meeting, County Administrator Theron Gay said that, if the SPLOST renewal is defeated, the county probably wouldn't want to install just two or three sirens.

The next agenda item was the approval of a renewal of a statewide mutual aid agreement.

"This is just a renewal of the current agreement that was signed 10 years ago," said Jay Jones, Coweta's emergency management director. "They are doing these in four-year increments now."

If there is a disaster in Coweta and "we needed outside resources... we could reach out," Jones said.

For instance, if a crane was needed in Coweta, Coweta officials would contact the Georgia Emergency Management Agency, which would then find a nearby crane that Coweta could use. Or, if another county needed something that Coweta has, "we could send it that way," Jones said.

"We don't have to send anything if it is going to deplete our resources, if we need it for our coverage, so we can say no if necessary," Jones said.

If there is a federal disaster declaration, any counties that offer aid get reimbursed. Otherwise, they can request reimbursement from the jurisdiction that received the aid -- if they want to.

When the tornados came through last spring, there was a federal disaster declaration, Jones said. "So we were able to receive funds," he said. "That is part of where the siren grant is coming from."

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