ELLSWORTH – Outdoor emergency sirens could be no more in Pierce County after Xcel Energy’s recent changes presented by Emergency Management Director Christine McPherson at the Law Enforcement Committee meeting on July 11.

McPherson updated the committee on Xcel’s plan to switch from the current outdoor sirens to the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS). IPAWS is a system that sends warnings to people through many different communication forms including cell phones, radio and television.

“The type of tornado warning that you got on your phone where it went off like an alarm, that’s the type of messaging that the Xcel powerplant is planning to switch to,” McPherson said. “Even if you have sirens, when you’re inside your house, especially in the middle of the night, a radio is a much better thing or your phone.”

Within Pierce County there are 52 sirens owned by Xcel and seven that are owned by townships or municipalities that are set off in case of severe weather.

The options for the committee are primarily limited to keeping the sirens in place but taking on the costs instead of Xcel, or having Xcel remove the sirens at the company’s expense.

McPherson is set to bring the topic back to the table during the Aug. 8 committee meeting, with more information after talking with people from Xcel.

The sirens in Pierce County vary in age, but on average are on the second half of their life cycles.

“The current sirens in Pierce County, overall, are about two-thirds into their expected life cycle which is about 30 years,” McPherson said.

According to McPherson, each siren costs around $1,500 per year for maintenance, with $2,500 batteries needing to be replaced every five years. When the time comes to replace a siren entirely, expected costs can be around $30,000 or more.

Members of the committee had concerns about children or other members of Pierce County who do not have electronic devices not knowing about storms that are coming without a siren. Others believe there should be some personal responsibility to know about the looming weather.

The committee agreed to take public input into account before making an official decision.

Emergency call updates

McPherson discussed a new service that will be added to 911 phone calls that will allow staff to text people who have an emergency, or even receive photos or video.  The service is called Prepared Live 911, and it will run in addition to RapidSOS that was already in place to allow location tracking of 911 callers.

People would have to opt-in to this service in order to protect people’s privacy.

McPherson also discussed getting people signed up with an emergency profile. The profile includes information such as home address, family phone numbers and emergency contacts, and will provide emergency responders with more information to assist.

The plan is to have people who are interested fill out their information at a booth at the Pierce County Fair.