West Fourth Street siren malfunctions a third time

Thursday night, a warning siren located at Union Cemetery siren malfunctioned for a third time in recent months despite the City of Newton’s repeated efforts to resolve the issue.

A siren sounded when there was no immediate severe storm threat in the area. There were storms in central Iowa at the time, but there was no tornado or impending threat of that scale in Newton when the siren sounded.

In early July, after a storm warning siren malfunction that happened in the early hours of a weekday morning left residents confused and bitter, the city pinpointed the culprit siren that had recently been installed, and brought in the contracting installer put in some new internal components.

Newton Director of Public Works Keith Laube said Friday the contractor, RC Systems of Waterloo, will be contacted again in an attempt to resolve the issue. Laube said RC Systems has come out to the Union Cemetery since the July 6 erroneous sounding to replace components of the siren.

The siren, which is activated by radio-frequency banding, has the same components and was installed by the same personnel as a siren at the corner of East 12th Street North and North 11th Avenue East, which has not malfunctioned at all.

“Thursday’s sounding was not triggered by emergency management or dispatch,” Laube said. “I’m sure it’s frustrating to citizens because you can sometimes hear it inside a house, even though it’s an outdoor warning siren. We don’t want people to start disregarding sirens. We’ll have to have some discussions and see what can be done.”

The Jasper County Sheriff’s Office and the Newton Police Department issued social media notices that the siren was malfunctioning and there was no tornado or other storm danger in the area. There was some heavy rain as the result of a storm, furthering confusion among residents.

There are about 12 sirens within the city of Newton. The Wireless Emergency Notification System (WENS) text and email alert system is not connected to the locally and automatically triggered sirens.

Newton Mayor Mike Hansen said he’s confident the Public Works department will do everything that can be done to resolve the dilemma.

“I would rather have a siren malfunction in this way than have it miss a serious storm, or have it shut down during a part of the year when we need it most,” Hansen said. “But I’d rather not have it malfunction at all. The city will do its level best to get it resolved.”

Hansen said anyone who hears a warning siren should take a look around outside and see if there is a visible, immediate weather threat.

“I know it’s frustrating,” Hansen said. “It’s frustrating for the city, too. We’ll do our best to get it handled.”

Contact Jason W. Brooks at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or jbrooks@newtondailynews.com