Prairie Grove Turns Off Tornado Sirens

PRAIRIE GROVE — The Prairie Grove City Council voted last week to turn off the city’s tornado sirens and eventually take the sirens down.

“I think we ought to just say out loud, ‘ they don’t work anymore,’” Mayor Sonny Hudson said in making the recommendation to the council at its April 15 meeting.

Hudson said the city has tried to use the sirens for as long as it could but pointed out the cost of upkeep and repairs is getting expensive.

The city has three sirens but to continue using the sirens, the city would have to upgrade the system. In addition, not all three sirens rotate and that would require additional money.

Hudson said he is more concerned that residents would rely on the false secu- rity of hearing the sirens as a warning of approaching severe weather, instead of signing up for the Code Red emergency notification system.

“There’s just all kinds of advantages of Code Red,” Hudson said. “It just keeps getting better.”

Larry Oelrich, director of administrative services and public works, said the city could leave the sirens up while it looked around to see if another town was interested in them but Alderman Casey Copeland said he preferred that the city go ahead and take down the alarms. Copeland noted people may think the sirens still work if they can be seen on the poles.

In other action, the council approved an ordinance to ratify and confirm the sale of water and sewer refunding revenue bonds in the principal amount of $2,175,000. The council agreed last month to refi- nance a 2008 bond issue and three loans totaling $3.2 million in principal and interest.

The four debts will be combined into one bond issue and the city’s net savings over the life of the issue will be about $250,000, according to Bob Wright with Crews and Associates investment firm of Springdale. Wright gave an update on refinancing the debts at the council’s March meeting.

The total cost of the new bond issue will be $ 2.9 million, including principal and interest. The savings will come from lower interest rates.

The council also directed city staff to draft an ordinance to allow fireworks stands in the city limits for the July 4 holiday. Last year, the council allowed Dee Bartholomew to open his stand next to Dollar General and Bartholomew attended the April 15 meeting to make the same request.

Hudson recalled that when the council granted Bartholomew a waiver last year, it was with the understanding that it was a onetime agreement.

“Last year, we said we’d talk about whether to change the ordinance to allow fireworks stands in the city limits,” Hudson said.

Alderman Rick Clayton agreed, saying, “I think it’s something we need to look into.”