Six months later, the Town Council has committed to building a weather alert siren system and plans to install two sirens to make sure Mount Airy residents know to seek shelter in the face of a flood, tornado or hurricane.
“If this system only prevents the loss of one more town resident, we feel it is worth every penny spent,” said Lucie Riegel, a member of the town’s Inclement Weather Task Force, during a Monday night Town Council meeting.
By unanimous vote, council members committed to leave room in the fiscal 2027 budget for the cost of sirens, software, installation and education related to the new weather alert system. Estimated costs for the system are about $93,500; the town will seek federal and state grants and private donations for half of that.
Several local businesses have pledged donations for part of the cost, and at Monday’s meeting, Carroll County Sheriff Jim DeWees pledged to support the effort with asset forfeiture money — funds that come from the value of goods seized from suspects.
DeWees said an early warning siren could have helped the town during past weather emergencies, and he said he is eager to support Mount Airy in obtaining the system.
“There’s no better way to use drug dealers’ money than to support the community in this way,” DeWees said.
Vulnerability to natural disasters
Mount Airy stretches over the middle of Parr’s Ridge, a geologic formation that marks the peak of Maryland’s Piedmont plateau, and the ridges and valleys in Mount Airy can make the town especially vulnerable to natural disasters, Riegel said. The town has faced several weather emergencies in the past 10 years, including a 2018 tornado that damaged several buildings.According to the resolution, the weather alert sirens would go into effect if the National Weather Service issues a Tornado Warning, Severe Thunderstorm Warning or Flash Flood Warning — the highest level NWS alert for each natural disaster. These alerts typically trigger emergency notifications on the cell phones of users in the affected area, but Mount Airy’s resolution notes that traditional weather sirens are an important safety measure for those without access to cell phones or internet service.
The town’s Inclement Weather Task Force, established in July just before the fatal flood, has spent six months researching weather siren systems, led by task force chair and college student Jack Rudden. The task force modeled the rough plan for Mount Airy’s system off of similar towns like Emittsburg, Ellicott City and La Plata.
Budget considerations
The town’s next challenge is finding funding for the weather siren system in a tight budget year — a point that almost swayed council members Karl Munder and Sean Kelly to vote against the resolution. Mount Airy is facing a deficit in its water and sewer budget, which the town will likely need to address as it drafts its budget for fiscal 2027. The town usually approves its budget in May for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1.“We’ve got some budget considerations coming up quickly, and I’m not sure that, 80 or 90,000, if that’s there right now,” Kelly said.
According to council member Stephen Domotor, liaison to the Inclement Weather Task Force, the weather siren system is actually estimated to cost closer to $85,000, but the final cost is still subject to change once the town officially puts out a bid for estimates from private companies.
Hushour said that, for a project like this, the town will need to include the full estimated cost of the project in its 2027 budget, even if it plans to cover most of that cost with grants. Still, he told the Carroll County Times before the meeting he feels the fiscal difficulties are well worth it for this project.
“When we first started this, I wasn’t 100% on it,” Hushour said. “But from the research … and seeing that this was actually a good viable system, my pendulum swung all the way.”
Ultimately, Hushour, Domotor and Council President Tim Washabaugh urged the rest of the council to vote in favor of the resolution. While the town doesn’t have all the funding specifics ready, Washabaugh said it is important to commit to finding a solution for the town’s natural disaster warning system.
“If no one here is against [the weather siren system], there is no reason to vote against this. That’s just a fact,” Washabaugh said.
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