Village replaces old fire siren, which hasn’t worked since 2015

By: 
Joanie Moore, Contributing Writer

Photo by Joanie Moore

Crews from West Shore Services, of Allendale, mount a new emergency siren to a pole in the Village of Mancelona last Tuesday, Aug. 6. The new siren features a battery back-up system, and can be operated remotely by emergency services within the county.

 

MANCELONA – For those who have lived in the Mancelona area for five years or more, chances are they’ve heard the iconic fire siren that once sounded every day at noon.  The siren, which made its final call in 2015, has been replaced.

Mancelona Police Chief Bill Robbins said it was discovered sometime during 2015 that the old, civil defense siren no longer worked.

“Elmer Grody wanted that siren replaced,” Robbins recalled. Grody, a lifelong resident of Mancelona who served on the fire department for 51 years, died in May 2018.

The siren was originally installed in the mid-1950s.  It was manually sounded to notify firefighters of a fire and that they should report to the station.  It was also tested daily at noon to ensure it was in working condition.

Sometime in the mid-1980s, the siren stopped working. Brian Curtis, who worked for Jay’s TV Repair at the time, remembers when the Village hired the company to investigate the cause of failure, and attempt to fix it.

“I climbed up the siren tower, got it unbolted and the wiring disconnected, and a crane then lowered it onto a truck,” Curtis remembered. “It was the village mechanics who removed a bird nest from inside that had jammed up the motor.”

Curtis said screening was placed over the sound projection tubes to prevent birds from getting back in and building nests. The siren was tested inside the village garage to make sure it worked before they put it back up.

“It was really loud so they had to do it fast,” he recalled with a laugh. “It took about a week to fix it, and then we put it back up.”

It was then that Curtis created a way for fire department officers to sound the siren remotely, using radios. However, sometime later the siren stopped working again, which was discovered in 2015.

Mancelona Village President Mike Allison said Grody was instrumental in getting the siren replaced.

“Elmer got the ball rolling,” Allison said.

Eventually the project was turned over to Antrim County Emergency Services Coordinator Leslie Meyers, who applied for a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) grant.

“The grant was for a little over $14,000 and covered the cost of the new siren and installation,” Meyers said.

The newer equipment has a battery back-up system and can be used in the event of a power failure. In addition, it can be operated remotely by the Antrim County Sheriff’s Department, or by Emergency Services. The Village of Mancelona will also be able to sound it manually, if a situation warrants.

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