A routine matter of applying for grant funds to pay civil defense personnel led to a discussion among Pike County supervisors Tuesday about malfunctioning emergency sirens.
The board voted 4-1 to apply for the reimbursable $41,304 Emergency Management Performance Grant.
Supervisor Tazwell Bowsky, the lone opponent in the vote, asked if the money could be used to repair emergency sirens, but Civil Defense Director Richard Coghlan said several issues prevent that.
He said the grant is for personnel expenses and that the county doesn’t own any of the malfunctioning sirens. Even if it did, he said, it’s difficult to find someone who can repair them.
Coghlan said the county owns one siren that’s located at the community safe room on Quinlivan Road, but municipalities and school districts own the others. He said three sirens in the county don’t work, including two in McComb and one in Osyka.
“You think they’re fixable?“ board president Lee Fortenberry asked.
“Absolutely,” Coghlan said. “The problem is we can’t find anybody to work on them.”
Coghlan said he’s contacted McComb and Osyka officials about their sirens.
“That is very important to the safety of our citizens,” Supervisor Robert Accardo said. “This money is for salaries. We cannot fix our equipment with it.”
Bowsky read through the grant paperwork during the discussion and questioned that interpretation of the uses for the grant, noting that it can go to “public information and warning.”
Coghlan said that’s irrelevant because the grant is for county use and the malfunctioning sirens aren’t county property.
“The deal is the sirens don’t belong to the county,” he said. “We can’t work on something that doesn’t belong to us. I’m working with the cities as much as I can.”
