Jasper County Emergency Management Agency Director Jamey Robinson is pursuing federal funding for a $563,000 project to repair or replace eight severe weather sirens in some rural areas of the county. Robinson says over the past several months, he’s been talking to County Board of Supervisors Chair Brandon Talsma about this issue.

“I’ll use Newburg as an example. It has a siren in place that is on private property and isn’t owned or operated by the county. There is an older gentleman that walks down a couple blocks during severe weather, walks into a shed and pulls a lever to activate the siren. There are a couple of other areas that have sirens that are antiquated or no longer work.”

Robinson added that Killduff has a siren that hasn’t worked for a long period of time, and a majority of residents would like it replaced. He also noted Prairie City recently replaced two severe weather sirens, and the total cost was just over $80,000. Money for the rural sirens would come from a Federal Mitigation Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Robinson says the grant would cover 75% of the cost, while the state would pay 10% and the county 15%.