West Unity Getting Modern Alert System

The storm siren in West Unity is out of com­mis­sion, and West Unity Vil­lage Admin­is­tra­tor Ric Beals, accord­ing to the Bryan Times, told the Williams County Com­mis­sion­ers on Mon­day that it’s beyond repair.

Accord­ing to Beals, replac­ing it with a new one would cost the vil­lage $21,000, and that money just isn’t in the bud­get.

There is a solu­tion how­ever, and it’s actu­ally a step up. West Unity is going dig­i­tal with a vil­lagei­wide instant alert sys­tem.

It works like this…

When the National Weather Ser­vice issues a warn­ing, every phone in town will ring with a pre-recorded mes­sage.

Beals told the com­mis­sion­ers that other coun­ties already use that type of sys­tem, and it can get the warn­ings out faster than the old fash­ioned sirens can even be acti­vated. It can even be tai­lored to only alert a spe­cific area if nec­es­sary.

Land lines will be auto­mat­i­cally reg­is­tered, but if you want to receive the alerts on your cell phone, you will have to sign up. There is no charge either way for res­i­dents, and the vil­lage will only pay $1,875 annu­ally to oper­ate the sys­tem… even less if more com­mu­ni­ties join in, because then the costs can be shared.