North St. Paul installs new weather siren
courtesy of City of North St. Paul • North St. Paul had a new severe weather siren installed on the roof of City Hall May 3 next to the existing siren, which will continue to be sounded at noon every day. The new siren, which has a different tone, will only be used in the event of severe weather.
courtesy of City of North St. Paul • Deputy Fire Chief Jason Mallinger and Fire Chief Scott Duddeck stand next to the new severe weather siren installed May 3 in North St. Paul.
North St. Paul installed a new Federal Signal siren May 3 to be used for severe weather warnings. The siren that residents are used to hearing every day at noon has not been decommissioned and will continue to mark midday.
The new siren cost $18,500 plus a $4,000 installation fee, according to a North St. Paul press release. It was updated because Ramsey County Emergency Management and the Ramsey County Dispatch Center are implementing a county-wide siren controller update.
The release also states that the previous outdoor warning sirens were activated using a system that’s “well over 30 years old,” which was “very unreliable.”
The new county system allows sirens to be sounded only when they are located in an area under severe weather warning, reducing the sirens sounded because of threats on the other end of the county.
The new siren creates a low frequency tone, which has “better penetration and better sound effects to notification of the public” than the higher frequency noon siren, said Fire Chief Scott Duddeck speaking at the March 20 North St. Paul City Council meeting, during which the council authorized the purchase.
It’s because of this different tone that the new siren will not be used to signal the time. Instead, the new siren was installed next to the existing siren on the roof of City Hall and will be used only to indicate weather warnings.
— Aundrea Kinney
