Editor's note: This story was originally published in the Belleville News-Democrat.
St. Clair County thought a new, countywide warning system for dangerous weather would be installed by late spring or early summer 2023, but the project has been delayed by a year.
The county signed a $2.49 million contract with Acoustic Technology, Inc. Systems in late 2022 to replace 79 existing sirens across the county and install 43 new ones. It was paid for with federal COVID-related relief funds from the American Rescue Plan.
Today, the company is a little over halfway done with siren installations that began in 2023, according to Herb Simmons, director of the St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency.
Simmons said the first sirens were installed in the western part of the county that did not have functioning sirens for many years, including East St. Louis, Cahokia Heights and Dupo.
ATI Systems is currently working to install sirens in Smithton, O’Fallon, Millstadt and Hecker. Simmons said the company should be finished with the entire county by May or June.
Supply chain issues have caused the biggest delays in their work, according to Simmons.
“It’s like everything else: they had delays with parts,” he said. “We’re hearing it everywhere, every project out there.”
ATI Systems CEO Ray Bassiouni confirmed the supply chain delays. He said the company was also tied up because it was awarded many military contracts at the same time. Another factor in the delays is that it has been supplying equipment for the Israel-Hamas war, according to Bassiouni.
Sirens alert people who are outside that dangerous weather like a tornado or severe storm is approaching and they should head inside. St. Clair County’s new sirens will sound when the National Weather Service puts out an alert.
“I’m excited that we’re going to have a uniform system,” Simmons said. “It’s going to be another layer of redundancy to warn our citizens.”
The county also continues to use the mobile weather alert system CodeRED. Residents can sign up for the CodeRED alerts by visiting the county website.
Lexi Cortes is a reporter with the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio.
