Dispatch Center works on storm sirens

Nevada Daily Mail

At the Western Missouri 911 Dispatch board meeting Tuesday, director Tonia Davis gave the board an update on a malfunction in the area storm sirens.

On March 23, the dispatch attempted to test the sirens, but four of the sirens would not activate from dispatch. The dispatch contacted the company the law enforcement agencies use for radio maintenance, which thought the issue might be with the volume.

"We spent most of the day adjusting volumes and testing and it did not resolve all the issues," Davis said.

Davis said some changes were made in dispatch in October 2014, in order to make accessing the sirens from dispatch more efficient by adding buttons to their consoles. No changes were made to the actual sirens, however.

Davis said they were informed weather, extreme cold, extreme heat and other factors can cause issues with the sirens, changing the components or frequencies, but they are still not exactly sure where the malfunction is.

Davis said the fire department and others with the correct radios can activate the sirens manually. Fire Chief Bill Thornton also has been helping try to find out why the sirens can not be activated from dispatch.

Through further testing, one of the sirens has been fixed, but three others still can not be activated. Those sirens are located at the water plant, Marmaduke Park and Atlantic and Ash.

Police Chief Graham Burnley said they are now working with a new company to try to find out where the malfunction is.

"They're pretty confident that they're going to get the issue resolved," Burnley said.

Davis also gave a report on the Crisis Intervention Training she and one other dispatch member attended in Kansas City in March on a scholarship.

"I would love to make it mandatory for all my dispatchers," Davis said, saying the information they received was very helpful.

Davis said she was able to get slide shows from the training sessions on a jump drive and plans to share the information with other dispatchers.