Osage County Outdoor Warning Sirens Temporarily Out of Service
Due to the narrowband mandate established by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the outdoor warning sirens in Argyle, Linn (West side), Meta and Westphalia will be temporarily out of service until March or April 2012. During this time, these sirens will be returned to the vendor for reprogramming. Reprogramming should take approximately six-eight weeks.
The Osage County Emergency Operations Center will be replacing the Freeburg and Linn (behind City Hall) sirens in the March/April timeframe. The Linn Siren (behind City Hall) is currently out of service at this time. The current Freeburg siren will function until approximately March 1st and then be taken down for the installation of the new siren. Both sirens will be completely replaced and operational in the March/April timeframe.
The Rich Fountain warning siren is too outdated to reprogram for narrowband and the county cannot afford to replace it at this time. Due to the inconvenience and safety of those residents, the Emergency Operations Center is offering an Alert FM Receiver to each household in Rich Fountain free of charge. This device receives NWS warnings and other potentially lifesaving emergency alerts and messages for Osage County. If you live inside Rich Fountain or within the map area, and would like to receive an Alert FM Receiver, please contact our office at 573-897-3561, ext 220. Sacred Heart School already has one for each classroom. To see a map of the Rich Fountain area click here.
We are coordinating with the City of Belle, Ameren Missouri (Chamois) and Linn State Technical College to ensure their sirens are reprogrammed for narrowband as well.
While supplies last, the Osage County Emergency Operations Center is giving Alert FM Receivers away to all county residents free of charge. After that, they can be purchased locally from Electric Avenue in Linn for $39.99.
Osage County residents are also encouraged to “LIKE” the Osage County Emergency Operations Center, 911 Dispatch Facebook page to receive emergency information. To visit our facebook page click here.
Please make the Facebook page a link so they can click on it from here.
More information regarding the FCC narrowband migration can be found by clicking here.
