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HomeMy WebLinkAbout6.e. Outdoor Warning Sirens - Budget Adjustment 4 ROSEMOLIN SUMMARY CITY COUNCIL City Council Meeting: June 17, 2008 AGENDA ITEM: Outdoor Warning Sirens Budget AGENDA SECTION: Adjustment PREPARED BY: Gary Kalstabakken, Chief of Police AGENDA NO. (p, e. ATTACHMENTS: None APPROVED BY: RECOMMENDED ACTION: Motion to approve the use of Equipment CIP Reserve Funds to replace an outdoor warning siren and to fund other repairs to the warning sirens. ISSUE The Council is asked to authorize the use of reserve funds from the Equipment Fund to replace one siren and to remove three failed sirens. These funds will be used to replace a siren at County Road 42 and Chippendale Avenue. This will eliminate one other siren, while provided the same level of coverage and will eliminate the need for some short term expenditures to repair and reconfigure the eliminated siren. BACKGROUND The City maintains thirteen outdoor warning sirens for the purpose of notifying the community of severe weather. These sirens are placed throughout the City to provide coverage for a vast majority of the City. Of the thirteen sirens, seven (7) are 33 years old and four (4) are 23 years old. Two others are newer after being replaced due to a lightning strike in 1998 and a car crash in 2007 when the pole was knocked down by the crash. Replacement of the sirens has been programmed into the Capital Improvement Program beginning in 2009. There has been an increase in repairs on the sirens this year and last. In addition to increased maintenance costs, another cost will be incurred to replace the radios currently in the sirens. This change is necessitated because the radio frequency used to set off the sirens is now being used for fire paging by the Dakota Communications Center. Eagan's and Rosemount's sirens need to be configured to a new frequency. The cost for this will be approximately $1300 per siren because of the age of our sirens. It is presumed that DCC will cover some portion of this cost but a final cost sharing has not been settled upon. One of the sirens that has had maintenance issues this year is located at Jaycee Park. This is a smaller siren and a large portion of the area served by this siren overlaps with an area served by the siren at County 42 and Chippendale Avenue. The Jaycee Park siren repair involves the electrical service to the siren. Dakota Electric has attempted to repair the service once already, but the problem has reoccurred. It is estimated the repairs will run between $500 and $1000. Instead of repairing this siren, it is proposed to replace the siren at County Road 42 and Chippendale Avenue with a new siren. The replacement siren will be have a greater coverage range and will subsequently cover the area served currently by the Jaycee Park siren. This eliminates one older siren from the inventory while maintaining the same coverage. Cost of the replacement will be $23,845. This includes utilizing the same pole and electrical wiring at the Chippendale site. Removal of the Jaycee Park siren will cost $850. Two other sirens have also failed and are recommended to be removed. Those are located at Hwy. 52 and Hwy. 55 interchange and on Pine Bend Trail near C.F. Industries. It is proposed that these sirens be replaced in 2009. Both of these sirens serve primarily industrial areas. A siren located on Rich Valley Blvd. at 130 St. does provide some overlapping coverage and serves the western two thirds of the Flint Hills Refinery. The areas served by these sirens east of Hwy 52 and north of Hwy. 55 would not have an outdoor warning system in place until replacements are installed. There are funds to cover some of these costs but not all of the costs. $9200 has been encumbered for siren repairs. $10,000 is budgeted annually for siren repairs and approximately $8850 remains for 2008 repairs. These two accounts combined equal $18,050. Total Costs: New Siren Purchase and Installation: $23,845 Removal of Failed Sirens (3) $850 ea. $2550 Radio frequency change over (8) o Estimate $1000 ea. City share $8000 TOTAL COST $34,395 AVAILABLE FUNDS $18,050 RESERVE FUND USE $16,345 While these amounts are based upon quotes, they do not include any additional repair costs that may occur in 2008 for any sirens. Not is the $1000 frequency change cost a known amount because an agreement has not been reached yet with DCC for the cost sharing. However, the amounts shown reflect the best amounts known at this time. There are funds available in the Equipment CIP Reserve Fund to covet this expense. RECOMMENDATION Staff recommends the replacement of the siren at Chippendale and County Rd. 42 at this time. This will reduce the inventory of sirens by one and will resolve a maintenance /operational issue now. 2